TORDNTO'CANADA

n

I?

>••**? .

tfn ^-

//(.arfcn

O t

HANS MEMLINC

BY

W. H. JAMES WEALE

ASSOCIATE OF THK
ROYAL ACADEMY OF BELGIUM

LONDON
GEORGE BELL & SONS

1901

":^-

hJJ)

SEEM BY

I D,

PREFACE

TOURING the first half of the present century those
who visited and examined collections of Early
Netherlandish Paintings were like explorers voyaging
on a wild and unknown ocean without a chart ; some
of them making careful observations, and jotting down
on their maps any land of the existence and extent
of which they had acquired certain proof, and noting
its characteristic features ; others, however, in their
eagerness to make discoveries quickly, and to acquire
renown, mistaking sandbanks and rocks seen through
the mists for hitherto undiscovered countries, giving
them names, dilating in elegant language on their
beauties, and for a time obtaining the reputation of
having added to the world's knowledge.

So has it been with the history of the Early Nether-
landish School of Painting. Dates in the biographies
of a certain number of painters have been fixed, details
of their lives ascertained, and the authorship of a score
or two of paintings established beyond doubt by the
patient researches of De Laborde, Pinchart, Van Even,
and A. Wauters ; whilst others, such as De Busscher,
Michiels, A. J. Wauters, E. Baes, and C. Hasse have
unwisely put forth statements which, too readily

vi PREFACE

accepted as facts, have done more than anything else
to retard the clearing up of the history of the school,
and it will probably be a long time before many of
these errors disappear from popular histories and
dictionaries. Especially has this been the case with
the history of painting at Ghent, and M. Victor van
der Haeghen has rendered an immense service by
proving that not only several hundred artists who were
said to have flourished in that town never existed, but
that a number of documents concerning the Van Eycks
and their pupils were forgeries — accepted, no doubt,
in good faith by De Busscher, and published as being
of undoubted authenticity.

The author of the present volume spent considerable
time during several years in making researches in the
archives of Belgium and Holland, and was able to
restore to history, in addition to a number of other
artists, five painters of talent who had been entirely
forgotten, and whose works were attributed to others :
Albert Cornells, Gerard David, Adrian Isenbrant, John
Prevost, and James van Coornhuuse. Besides this he
rectified numerous points in the biographies of the
Van Eycks, Peter Cristus, and Hans Memlinc. Then
came a period when he had to abandon this work of
research, and to devote his entire time to doing his
utmost to reduce the chaotic state of things in the
National Art Library at South Kensington into some-
thing like order, and to make the existence of treasures
hidden away there known and accessible to students.

PREFACE vii

Compelled to abandon that work ere it was finished,
he is now again devoting a portion of his time to the
study of the Early Netherlandish Painters, and he
hopes to be able to be of some use in this way to
students.

The present volume includes the biography and an
account of the work of Hans Memlinc, who, after the
Van Eycks, is the most distinguished master of the
Early Netherlandish school. It will, the author hopes,
be found an interesting contribution to the present
series of monographs ; the biography is, he believes,
more accurate than in any work yet published. The
date of a number of paintings has been established,
and the persons for whom they were executed
identified ; others, attributed to Memlinc on what
appear to be insufficient grounds, have been rejected
and the reasons for so doing given.

One document only, discovered at Saint Omer's by
Father H. Dussart, has been added to those previously
unearthed by the writer in the archives of Bruges,
and this establishes beyond -doubt the exact date of
Memlinc's death and the place of his burial, which he
had already stated to be probable. It also tends to
favour one rather than the other of the two possible
localities whence the name of Memlinc, by which
the master is now known, was derived. The identity
of the man whose portrait is in the Van Ertborn
collection at Antwerp has also been discovered by
Mr. A. J. Wauters.

viii PREFACE

It only remains for the author to express his thanks
to M. L. Gilliodts, M. M. Van de Walle, and Mr.
Lescrauwaet of Bruges for information as to the
brethren and sisters attached to the Hospital of Saint
John and the Hospice of Saint Julian in that town,
and to Mr. Everard Green, Rouge Dragon, for notes
on armorial bearings.

CLAPHAM,

December 1900.

CONTENTS

PAGI

PREFACE v

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ••/••'* . • . . xi

BIBLIOGRAPHY ........ xv

Chapter I. BIOGRAPHICAL i

II. AUTHENTIC WORKS . . . . 13

III. UNAUTHENTICATED WORKS ... 59

IV. OTHER ATTRIBUTED WORKS ... 69
V. CHARACTERISTICS 79

CATALOGUE OF THE WORKS OF MEMLINC . . 95

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 95

BELGIUM 96

BRITISH ISLES 99

DENMARK ....... 100

FRANCE 101

GERMANY . . . . . . 102

ITALY ....... 104

INDEX 107

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Portrait of Martin van Nieuwenhove (1487)

St. John's Hospital^ Bruges
The Blessed Virgin and Child, with

Angels, Saints, and Donors.

Centre of Triptych (c. 1468) .
Saint John the Baptist and Saint

John the Evangelist. Inside of

Shutters of Triptych (c. 1468) .
Saint Christopher and Saint Anthony.

Outside of Shutters of Triptych

(c. 1468) . .
The Passion of Christ (1478) .
The Betrayal of Christ— Portrait of

William Vrelant. From the

Passion Picture (1478)
The Scourging of Christ. From the

Passion Picture (1478)
Christ bearing His Cross. Portrait

of Mary, wife of William Vrelant.

From the Passion Picture

(H78)

Christ the Light of the World (1480)

(double plate) ....
Christ the Light of the World (1480).

Central portion — the Adoration

of the Magi (double plate)
xi

Frontispiece

Chatsworth 14

Chatsworth 1 6

Chatsworth
Turin Gallery

Turin Gallery
Turin Gallery

18

20

2O

22

Turin Gallery 22

Munich 24

Munich 26

xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Christ the Light of the World (1480).

Portrait of Peter Bultinc and

his Son ....... Munich 30

Triptych (1479). Adoration of the

Magi. Portrait of Br. John

Floreins . . . St. Johris Hospital, Bruges 32

Triptych (1479). Inside of Shutter . . The same 32

Triptych (1479). Inside of Shutter . . . The same 32

Triptych (1479). Outside of Shutter . . The same 34

Triptych (1479). Outside of Shutter . . The same 34

Triptych of the High Altar (1479) • • • The same 36

Altar-piece (1479). Inside of Shutter . . The same 36

Altar-piece (1479). Inside of Shutter . . The same 38
Altar-piece (1479). Outside of Shutter.

Portraits of Brothers A. Seghers

and J. de Kueninc The same 38

William Moreel (c. 1480) .... Brussels 40
Barbara Van Vlaenderberch, wife of

William Moreel (c. 1480) .... Brussels 42
Mary Moreel as the Sibyl Sambetha

(1480) . . . St. John's Hospital^ Bruges 42

The Blessed Virgin and Child (1487) . . The same 44

Shrine of Saint Ursula (1489) .... The same 46
Panel of the Shrine of Saint Ursula

(1489) The same 46

Another panel The same 46

Another panel ...... The same 46

Another panel ...... The same 48

Another panel ...... The same 48

Another panel . , . . . . The same 48

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Xlll

Saint Ursula. The End of the Shrine . . The same 48
The Blessed Virgin and Child, with

James Floreins and Family

(c. 1490) The Louvre, Paris 50

The Bearing of the Cross. (Shutter

of Triptych, c. 1490). . . . . Vienna 52

Calvary (1491) Lubeck 54

The Blessed Virgin and Child, with

Saint George and the Donor . National Gallery 59
Altar-piece . . . . Mr. G. F. Bodley, A.R.A. 60

Epiphany Picture Copenhagen 62

Portrait of a Man . . . Uffizi Gallery, Florence 68
The Blessed Virgin and Child, with Angels

Uffizi Gallery, Florence 76

CHRONOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

* Recommended by the author as best worth perusal.

MANDER, CAREL VAN. "Het Leven der Doorluchtighe

Nederlantsche en Hooghduytsche Schilders," / 204.

Alckmaer, 1 604.
DESCAMPS, JEAN BAPTISTE. "La Vie des Peintres Fla-

mands," i, 12-15. Paris, 1753.
GOETHE, JOHANN WOLFGANG VON. " Ueber Kunst und Alter-

thum in den Rhein und Mayn Gegenden," i, 138-183.

Stuttgart, 1816.
FIORILLO, J. D. "Geschichte der zeichnenden Kiinste in

Deutschland und den vereinigten Niederlanden," ii, 304-

312. Hannover, 1817.
GAULT DE SAINT GERMAIN, PIERRE MARIE. " Guide des

amateurs de tableaux," pp. 6 and 7. Paris, 1818.
KEVERBERG VAN KESSEL, CHARLES L. G. J. " Ursula,

princesse Britannique, d'apres la legende et les peintures

d'Hemling," xii and 236 pp. Gand, 1818.
CHEZY, HELMINA VON. " Ueber die Gemahldesammlung des

Herren Boissere"e und Bertram," pp. ix-xv. Berlin, 1818.
SCHOPENHAUER, JOHANNA HENRIETTE. "Johann van Eyck

und seine Nachfolger," pp. 116-193. Frankfurt am Main,

1822.
JAMES, J. T. " The Flemish, Dutch, and German Schools of

Painting," pp. 92, 93. London, 1822.

xvi CHRONOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

HELLER, JOSEPH. " Monogrammen Lexikon," pp. 172, 177,

and 216. Bamberg, 1831.
BRULLIOT, FRANCOIS. " Dictionnaire des Monogrammes,

etc.," i, 246, No. 19,292; 295, No. 2306; iii, No. 230.

Munich, 1832-1834.
PASSAVANT, JOHANN DAVID. " Kunstreise durch England

und Belgian," pp. 94, 95, 218, 352-362, 364-5, 387-391,

397. Frankfurt am Main, 1833.
SCHNAASE, KARL J. F. " Niederlandische Briefe," pp. 327-

332, 345> 346, and 349-362. Stuttgart, 1834.
PASSAVANT, J. D. "Tour of a German Artist in England,"

i, 209-212. London, 1836.
KUGLER, FRANZ THEODOR. " Handbuch der Geschichte der

Malerei," ii, 64-72. Berlin, 1837.
NAGLER, GEORG KASPAR. "Neues allgemeines Kiinstler-

Lexikon," vi, 83-96. Miinchen, 1838.
JUSTE, TH. "Hans Memling." In Revue Beige, x, 325-336.

Liege, 1838.
DELEPIERRE, OCTAVE. " Galerie d'Artistes Brugeois, ou Bio-

graphie concise des Peintres . . . celebres de Bruges," pp.

18-22. Bruges, 1840.
DELEPIERRE (O.) et VOISIN (C. AUGUSTS). " La Chasse de

Sainte Ursule." 55 pp., 15 plates engraved by C. Onghena.

Bruxelles, 1841.
DELEPIERRE, O. "La Chasse de Sainte Ursule." 32 pp., 15

lithogr. by Ghemar and Manche, coloured by Malherbe.

Bruges, 1841.
PASSAVANT, J. D. "Beitrage zur Kenntniss der alt Nieder-

landschen Malerschulen." In Kunstblatt, Stuttgart,

1841, pp. 33-35.

CHRONOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY xvii

BLOMMAERT, PHILIPS. " Recherches sur Fancienne Ecole de
Peinture Flamande." In Messager des Sciences historiquesy
Gand, 1841, pp. 318-323. Translation of articles by
Passavant in the Kunstblatt.

BURCKHARDT, JACOB. "Die Kunstwerke der Belgischen
Stadte," pp. 66 and 158-164. Diisseldorf, 1842.

IMMERZEEL, JOANNES, C. H., en C. " De Levens en Werken

der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche Kunstschilders," i, 213,

214. Amsterdam, 1842.
PASSAVANT, J. D. " Sur les productions des Peintres de

1'ancienne Ecole Flamande." In Messager des Sciences

historiques, Gand, 1842, pp. 220-227.

RATHGEBER, GEORG. "AnnalenderNiederlandischenMalerei,"
pp. 107-116 and 432. Gotha, 1842.

* FORTOUL, HIPPOLYTE N. H. " De 1'Art en Allemagne," ii,

146-153. Paris, 1842.
NIEUWENHUYS, CONRAD J. "Description de la Galerie des

Tableaux de S. M. le Roi des Pays Bas, avec quelques

remarques sur 1'histoire des Peintres et sur les progres de

1'Art," pp. 28-57. Bruxelles, 1843.
MICHIELS, ALFRED. "Histoire de la Peinture Flamande et

Hollandaise," i, 288-375. Bruxelles, 1845.

* SCHLEGEL, FRIEDRICH VON. " Aesthetic Works," translated

by E. J. Millington, pp. 39 and 123. London, 1846-49.

MICHIELS, A. "Les Peintres Brugeois," pp. 200-275. Brux-
elles, 1846.

HEDOUIN, P. " Memling : Etude sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de
ce Peintre, suivie du Catalogue de ses Tableaux." Paris,
1847. Extrait des Annales Archeologiques, vi, 256-278.
b

xviii CHRONOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

CARTON, CHARLES Louis. "Note sur Hemling." In Bul-
letins de FAcadtmie royale de Belgique, xiv, 115-121.

Bruxelles, 1847.
KUGLER, F. T. " Handbuch der Kunstgeschichte, 2e Auflage

mit Zusaetzen von Dr. J. Burckhardt," pp. 780, 781.

Stuttgart, 1848.
HOUSSAYE, A. " Geschichte der Flamandischen und Hol-

landischen Malerei. Deutsch von Dr. A. Diezmann," pp.

40-44. Leipzig, 1847.
HOUSSAYE, ARSENE. " Histoire de la Peinture Flamande et

Hollandaise." 2e edition, i, 131-144 and 166. Paris,

1848.
VALENTIN, F. "Les Peintres celebres." 5e edition, pp. 210,

211. Tours, 1849.
PASSAVANT, J. D. " The Leuchtenberg Gallery. A collection

of Pictures engraved by J. N. Muxel, with biographical

and critical notices by J. D. P.," pp. 16, 17. Frankfort,

1852.
PILKINGTON, MATTHEW. " A General Dictionary of Painters."

New edition, corrected by R. A. Davenport, p. 251.

London, 1852.
MICHIELS, A. " L' Architecture et la Peinture en Europe du

ive au xvie siecle," pp. 199-201. Bruxelles, 1853.
PASSAVANT, J. D. " Die Christliche Kunst in Spanien," pp.

130-133. Leipzig, 1853.
KUGLER, F. " Handbook of Painting. The German, Flemish,

Dutch, Spanish, and French Schools. Partly translated.

Edited, with Notes, by Sir E. Head," i, 83-94. London,

1854.

* FOERSTER, ERNST. " Denkmale Deutscher Kunst," I, iii,
3, 4. Leipzig, 1855.

CHRONOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY xix

PASSAVANT, J. D. "Eine Wanderung durch die Gemalde
Sammlung des Stadelschen Kunstinstituts," p. 13. Frank-
furt am Main, 1855.

HERIS. " Memoire sur le caractere de 1'Ecole Flamande de
Peinture sous le regne des dues de Bourgogne," pp. 163-
166. Bruxelles, 1856.

LOEDEL, HEINRICH. "Kleine Beitrage zur Kunstgeschichte
. . . Berichtigungen iiber . . . den Namen Hans Memling."
2 pp. Koln, 1857.

CROWE (JOSEPH ARCHER) and CAVALCASELLE (GIOVAN BAT-
TISTA). " The Early Flemish Painters : Notices of their
Lives and Works," pp. 237-273 and 356-359. London,

1857-
KRAMM, CHRISTIAAN. " De Levens en Werken der Hollandsche

en Vlaamsche Kunstschilders," i, 670-672; iii, 75, 76.

Amsterdam, 1857-61.
CLEMENT DE Ris, L. " Le Muse"e royal de Madrid," p. 103.

Paris, 1859.

CLEMENT DE Ris, L. "Les Musses de Province: Stras-
bourg," i, 50. Paris, 1859.
" Notice sur les Tableaux du Musee de 1'Hopital Saint-Jean

pre'ce'dee de la Vie de Jean Memling." 5* Edition.

Bruges, 1860, pp. 1-38.

* VITET, Louis. " Les Van Eyck et Hemling." In Revue des

Deux MondeS) xxix, 934-959. Paris, 1860.
DEHAISNES, CHRETIEN. " De 1'Art Chretien en Flandre," pp.
174-215. Douai, 1860.

* WAAGEN, GUSTAV FRIEDRICH. " Handbook of Painting.

The German, Flemish, and Dutch Schools. Based on the
Handbook of Kugler, enlarged, and for the most part
re-written," i, 95-106. London, 1860.

xx CHRONOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

WEALE, WILLIAM HENRY JAMES. " Documents authentiques
concernant la vie, la famille, et la position sociale de Jean
Memlinc, de*couverts a Bruges." In Journal des Beaux-
Arts^ iii, 21-55 and I9^< Bruxelles, 1861.

WEALE, W. H. J. " Catalogue du Musee de 1'Academie de
Bruges. Notices et descriptions avec monogrammes, etc."
pp. 20-26. Bruges, 1861.

WAAGEN, G. F. "Handbuch der Deutschen und Nieder-
landischen Malerschulen," i, 115-128. Stuttgart, 1862.

WAAGEN, G. F. " Manuel de PHistoire de la Peinture. Ecoles
Allemande, Flamande, et Hollandaise. Traduction par
MM. Hymans et J. Petit," i, 142-160 et 256. Bruxelles,
1863.

* FOERSTER, ERNST. " Denkmale Deutscher Kunst," VIII,

iii, 13-16. Leipzig, 1863.

* CROWE (J. A.) et CAVALCASELLE (G. B.). "Les anciens

Pejntres Flamands, leur vie et leurs ceuvres. Traduit par
O. Delepierre. Annote et augmente de documents inedits
par A. PINCHART et C. RUELENS," ii, 12-50 and 141-145.
Annotations, cxlvii-clxiv, and ccxli-ccxliv. Bruxelles,
1863-65.

WEALE, W. H. J. " Triptych by Hans Memlinc at Chiswick."
In Notes and Queries^ 3rd Series, vi, 451. London, 1864.

WORNUM, RALPH NICHOLSON. "The Epochs of Painting.
A biographical and critical essay on Painting and Pain-
ters," pp. 148-151. London, 1864.

MICHIELS, A. "Jean Memlinc," 8 pp. In Charles Blanc's
" Histoire des Peintres. Ecole Flamande." Paris, 1864.

* WEALE, W. H. J. "Le Beffroi," ii, 185-192, 209, 210, 213,

214, 230-232, and 264-268. Bruges, 1865.

CHRONOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY xxi

WEALE, W. H. J. " Hans Memlinc : a Notice of his Life and
Works," 21 pp. London, 1865.

* WAAGEN, G. F. " Die vornehmsten Kunstdenkmaler in

Wien," i, 174, 181, 189, 278, and 280. Wien, 1866.

MICHIELS, A. " Histoire de la Peinture Flamande," iv, 7-130 ;
v, 464-466. Paris, 1866-68.

KUGLER, F. T. " Handbuch der Geschichte der Malerei.
3C Auflage nach der von Dr. Jacob Burckhardt besorgten
zweiten Auflage neu bearbeitet und vermehrt von Hugo
Freiherrn von Blomberg," ii, 391-404. Leipzig, 1867.

MICHIELS, A. " Jean Memlinc, sa legende et sa biographic."
In Revue Britannique, Paris, 1867, pp. 397-427.

WEALE, W. H. J. " Le Beffroi," iii, 348. Bruges, 1870.

* WEALE, W. H. J. "Hans Memlinc, zijn Leven en zijne

Schilderwerken." 70 pp. Brugge, 1871
"LA PLUME," Nos. 51 to 61. Bruges, 1871.

* CROWE (J. A.) and CAVALCASELLE (G. B.). "The Early

Flemish Painters : Notices of their Lives and Works."

2nd edition, pp. 251-299. London, 1872.
WEALE, W. H. J. "Hans Memlinc," 19 pp. In C. Ed.

Taurel, " L'Art Chretien en Hollande et en Flandre," i,

121-140. Amsterdam, 1873.
VLOTEN, JOHAN VAN. "Nederlands Schilderkunst," pp. 47-

51 and 99. Amsterdam, 1874.

* CROWE (J. A.) und CAVALCASELLE (G. B.). " Geschichte der

altniederlandischen Malerei. Deutsche Original-Ausgabe
bearbeitet von Anton Springer,"pp. 272-336. Leipzig, 1875.
OWEN, A. C. " The Art Schools of Mediaeval Christendom."
Edited by J. Ruskin. pp. 263-269. London, 1876.

* FROMENTIN, EUGENE. "Les maitres d'autrefois. Belgique,"

pp. 430-445. Paris, 1877.

xxii CHRONOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

LUBKE, WILHELM. " Outlines of the History of Art." Trans-
lation from the seventh German edition, edited by C.
Cook, ii, 441-444. New York, 1878.

SEUBERT, ADOLF FRIEDRICH. "Allgemeines Kiinstler Lexi-
con oder Leben und Werke der beriihmtesten bildenden
Kunstler." 2e Auflage. pp. 554, 555. Stuttgart, 1878.

* WOLTMANN, ALFRED F. G. A. " Geschichte der Malerei,"

ii, pp. 44-54. Leipzig, 1878.

* SCHNAASE, KARL J. F. " Geschichte der bildende Kiinste

im 1 5 Jahrhundert. Unter Mitwirkung von Dr. O. Eisen-
mann herausgegeben von W. Liibke," pp. 233-269.
Stuttgart, 1879.

* KUGLER, F. T. "Handbook of Painting. The German,

Flemish, and Dutch Schools. Based on the Handbook
of Kugler, re-modelled by the late Dr. Waagen. Thor-
oughly revised and in part re-written by J. A. Crowe,"
i, 92-104. London, 1879.

* WOLTMANN, A. F. G. A. " History of Painting, from the

German." Edited by S. Colvin. ii, 32-38. London,

1880.
MICHIELS, A. " Memlinc : sa vie et ses ouvrages." Verviers,

1881.
BUXTON (HENRY J. WILMOT) and POYNTER (EDWARD J.).

"German, Flemish, and Dutch Painting," pp. 86-90.

London, 1881.
LIMBURG-STIRUM, THIERRY DE. " L'Adoration des Mages de

Memlinc au musee de Madrid," 9 pp. In Messager des

Sciences, Gand, 1885, pp. 359-367.
WAUTERS, A. J. " La Peinture Flamande," pp. 85-93. Paris,

1883.

CHRONOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY xxiii

* GAEDERTZ, THEODOR. " Hans Memling und dessen Altar-

schrein im Dom zu Liibeck." Leipzig, 1883. 50 pp.,
with a plan of the polyptych.

* HYMANS, HENRI. " Le livre de Carl von Mander. Traduc-

tion, notes, et commentaires." i, 60-62 et 68-71. Paris,
1884.
HASSE, C. " Kunststudien," iv, 18-35. Breslau, 1892.

* DEHAISNES, C. "Les ceuvres des maitres de PEcole

Flamande primitive conservees en Italic et dans Test et
le midi de la France," 49 pp. Paris, 1891.

* FRIMMEL, THEODOR. " Kleine Galeriestudien," ii, 145-147.

Bamberg, 1892.

WAUTERS, A. J. " Sept Etudes pour servir a 1'histoire de
Hans Memling," 140 pp. Bruxelles, 1893.

* CONWAY, WILLIAM MARTIN. " Early Flemish Artists and

their predecessors on the Lower Rhine," pp. 235-268.
London, 1887.

SCHEIBLER, LUDWIG. " Ueber altdeutsche Gemalde in der
Kaiserlichen Galerie zu Wien." In Repertorium fur
Kunstwissenschaft) x, 279 and 286. Berlin, 1887.

* TSCHUDI, HUGO VON. " Die Ausstellung altniederlandische

Gemalde in Burlington Fine Arts Club." In Repertorium
fur Kunstwissenschaft) xvi, 104. Berlin, 1893.
HASSE, C. " Kunststudien," v, 47-78. Breslau, 1894.

* TSCHUDI, H. VON. " Les sept eludes de A. J. Wauters :

Die Kunststudien von C. Hasse. In Repertorium fur
Kunstwissenschaft, xvii, 282-293. Berlin, 1894.
REVILLION, CHARLES. " Recherches sur Memlinc et sur les
peintures de 1'abbaye de Saint Bertin qui lui sont attri-
buees." Saint Omer, 1895.

xxiv CHRONOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

LUBKE, W. " Geschiedenis der Beeldende Kunst von Neder-

land bewerkt door A. W. Weissman," p. 641. Amster-
dam, 1895.
* BODE, WILHELM. "Ein mannliches Bildnis von Hans

Memling in der Berliner Gallerie," 2 pp., i helioengr.

\\\Jahrbuch der Koniglich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen^

xvii, 3, 4. Berlin, 1896.
GRUYER, FRANCOIS ANATOLE. "La Peinture au chateau

de Chantilly," pp. 205-213. Paris, 1896.
JAMES, RALPH N. "Painters and their Works," ii, 206-209.

London, 1897.
WAUTERS, A. J. " Memling." In " Biographic Nationale de

Belgique," xiv, 340-356. Bruxelles, 1897.
JACOBSEN, EMIL. " La Regia Pinacoteca di Torino." In

Archivio Storico del? Arte, Serie 2a, iii, 209. Roma, 1897.
Du JARDIN, JULES. "L'Ecole de Bruges. Hans Memling,

son temps, sa vie et son ceuvre." Anvers, 1897. 149 pp.

et 63 photo-collographies.
BRYAN, MICHAEL. "Dictionary of Painters and Engravers,

biographical and critical." Edited by R. E. Graves and

W. Armstrong. London, 1898.
CAVALCASELLE (G. B.) e CROWE (J. A.) " Storia delP Antica

Pittura Fiamminga. Edizione originate Italiana," pp. 301-

371. Firenze, 1899.

* KAMMERER, LUDWIG. "Memling." 136 pp., 129 photo-

process illustrations. Leipzig, 1899.
BLANCHET, EMILE. " L'Art en Flandre," pp. 70-85. Paris, 1899.

* FRIEDLAENDER. " Die Leihausstellung der New Gallery in

London." In Repertorium filr Kunstwissenschaft, xxiii,
249, 250. Berlin, 1900.

MEMLINC

CHAPTER I
BIOGRAPHICAL

all lovers of early Netherlandish art the quaint
town of Bruges is full of interest. Its attractions
may not vie with those of the great and magnificent
cities of Europe, but still it has a charm of its own —
a charm which finds its way to the hearts of such as
love picturesque beauty. Its ancient buildings, of which
so many still remain, serve to bring before our imagina-
tion the Bruges of yore, in the days when traders from
every land congregated within its walls to dispose of
their wares ; for in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
this was the great market centre of the Hanse towns,
the home of merchant princes. The streets bore
witness to the wealth and prosperity which here
abounded ; the squares were adorned with fountains,
the bridges with statues in bronze, the public build-
ings and many of the private houses with statuary
and carved work, the beauty of which was heightened
and brought out by gilding and polychrome; the
windows were rich with storied glass, and the walls
A

2 HANS MEMLINC

of the interior were decorated with paintings in dis-
temper or else hung with gorgeous tapestry.

All this is now changed. Bruges no longer ranks
as a place of wealth or commercial importance ; its
population has dwindled to one-third of what it was in
the fifteenth century ; several of its important public
buildings have been destroyed, and only two of its
merchant palaces remain, so that we can form but a
faint idea of the olden splendour of the city. More-
over, a vast number of the paintings and other art
treasures which it once possessed have during the past
three centuries been exported by the Spaniards,
destroyed by Calvinist iconoclasts or French revolu-
tionists, and sold to picture and curiosity dealers of
all nations. Vaernewyck, writing in 1574, attests
that at that time the houses of Bruges were filled
with paintings by Memlinc and other great artists ;
these are now scattered throughout the world, and
Bruges has only preserved a relatively small number,
six of which are authentic works of the great master
who forms the subject of this volume.

The prosperous state of the city was favourable to
the growth and development of the fine arts. We
possess but few details concerning the painters who
worked here during the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries. The archives show that most of the artists
of that period came from the country lying between
the Rhine and the Scheldt, and they are designated
by three different titles, according as they were simple

BIOGRAPHICAL 3

painters, painters of armorial bearings (which formed
an important branch of work at that time), or executors
of mural paintings. Only one mural painting of the
fourteenth century is still extant in Bruges — viz. a full-
length figure of Saint Louis on a background of black
and white foliage, painted about the year 1340, and
discovered in 1874 beneath the whitewash in the
Church of Our Lady.

In painting on panels the method commonly em-
ployed was the ancient one of tempera. The vehicles
used were viscid and siccative matters, such as white
of egg and gum, in more or less quantity, with the
addition of honey, vinegar, or beer to render them
sufficiently fluid. The painting was finished off with
a coating of coloured varnish, which had the two-fold
advantage of giving tone and vigour to the subject
and of preserving the tempera from the effects of the
atmosphere.

An example of a panel executed according to
this method is preserved in the Church of Saint
Saviour at Bruges. It dates from the end of the four-
teenth century, and represents the scene of Calvary,
with Saint Katherine and Saint Barbara on a back-
ground of tooled gold. This picture has by no means
the finish of the school of the fifteenth century, but
looking at it carefully, one cannot fail to be struck by
its realistic character, which is the more interesting con-
sidering its date. The figure of the Redeemer is long
and thin, the drawing of the hands and feet, as well

II

4 HANS MEMLINC

as of the details generally, being faulty. The female
figures are not wanting in expression, elegance, or
simplicity of pose, and their heads, particularly that of
the Virgin, are fine, with regular features. But the
men are less well drawn ; one of the soldiers is almost
trivial, and is placed in an awkward, constrained atti-
tude. The drapery of the Virgin is well arranged.
The fingers generally taper to a disproportionate length,
and are badly modelled. The rendering of the flesh
colour is pallid and almost opaque — a fault which occurs
in most Netherlandish pictures of the period. The
copious and vivid colouring of the draperies is a
feature of the Netherlandish school, and in such por-
tions of the picture it would seem that oil has been
made use of, but possibly they were retouched at a
later though remote date. The author of this picture
is unknown, but may perhaps be John Coene, who,
in 1388, painted a picture of the "Last Judgment" for
the council room in the Town Hall, or Peter De Deckere,
a native of Axel, who settled in Bruges in 1407, and
amongst other works executed a triptych representing
the Birth of Christ, the Circumcision, and other scenes,
which long adorned the altar in the council room.

Bruges does not appear to have been the birthplace
of any artist of note, but during the first half of the
fifteenth century many were attracted thither, no
doubt by the wealth of its inhabitants, and the facili-
ties there afforded for a ready sale of works of art.
Amongst these may be mentioned Arnold upten Diic,

BIOGRAPHICAL 5

a native of Duisburg in Guelderland, William van
Beringhen, who hailed from Maastricht, John van
den Driessche and William van Tongeren, of Tongres.
But the best known of them all, and the first of these
of whom we still possess authentic works, were Hubert
and John van Eyck. The former was here early in
the century, but settled in Ghent ; the latter dwelt in
the town in 1425, from May to August, and from 1431
until the day of his death, July Qth, 1440. We have
certain knowledge of only one pupil of the Van Eycks,
Peter Cristus, a native of Baarle, near Tilburg, who
settled here, and died in 1473.

Of none, however, of all the celebrated men who
made this town their home has Bruges more reason
to be proud than of the subject of this notice, Hans
Memlinc. Yet, a century after his death, the town
which he had enriched with his masterpieces had so
completely forgotten him that Charles van Mander,
when preparing his biographies of Netherlandish
painters, could only learn that he was in his time a
celebrated master, who flourished before the time of
Peter Poerbus — that is, before 1540. Thus matters
remained until, in the middle of the last century, a
French author who travelled through Belgium took
it into his head, more Gallico, to invent an absurd
legend, to which each succeeding writer added a fresh
detail. In the seventeenth century there was a tradi-
tion at Bruges, recorded in a manuscript written by
Canon James De Damhouder, that Hans Memlinc

6 HANS MEMLINC

painted a picture for the Hospital of Saint John, in
that town, out of gratitude for the services rendered
to him by the brethren attached to that institution.
Such was the foundation — the only point which can
have any truth — of the legend published by Descamps
in 1753, to which Viardot and Alfred Michiels added
details so ridiculous that one may well think that
a little reflection would have sufficed to cause them
to be rejected by anyone endowed with common-
sense. Hedouin in 1847, Crowe and Cavalcaselle in
1857, and Waagen in 1860, were, I believe, the first to
express their disbelief in the story.

It was not until 1861 that the pious Christian artist,
who had been represented as a sick, wounded soldier,
as a drunkard and a debauchee, was rehabilitated,
thanks to the documents unearthed by me in the
municipal and episcopal archives of Bruges.

Much has been written as to the origin of his family,
and the correct manner of spelling his name, whether
with an initial H or M, and a final C or G. The first
point is now settled beyond doubt ; the second still
remains an open question. His name occurs forty-
nine times in contemporary written documents in the
archives of Burges ; thirty-two times with the termin-
ation INC, fifteen with YNC, once with YNCGHE,
once YNGHE, never ING, which ending is not met
with in contemporary Netherlandish family names.

As to the origin of the painter's family, in a notice
I wrote for the Arundel Society in 1865, I said : "The

BIOGRAPHICAL 7

date and the place of Memlinc's birth are alike
unknown. He may have derived his name either from
the village of Miimling or Momling, situated on a river
of the same name, a few miles from Aschaffenburg,
in Germany, or from Memelynck, near Alkmaar, in
North Holland." Further researches led me to believe
that the family had probably emigrated from the latter,
when in 1426 it was taken by the Kennemaren, and
had settled in Guelderland. In the second half of the
fifteenth century a number of natives of that duchy
settled in Bruges, several coming from Deutichem and
from Duisburg. Already, in 1478, Memlinc, at Bruges,
was in close connection with one of these, the minia-
turist William Vrelant ; and one of the guardians of
his children, when he lost his wife in 1487, was Dirk
van den Gheere, a goldsmith from Deutichem, who had
settled in Bruges in 1471. As, according to the laws
then in force, the guardians were invariably chosen from
the next-of-kin, I thought it advisable to make further
research. At Deutichem I found that, unfortunately,
the earliest registers in the archives did not extend
further back than 1524 (I afterwards discovered an
earlier one in the library of the late Mr. Bragge at
Sheffield), but found no mention of the name, though
I was struck with the very large proportion of families
whose names ended in "inck."

In 1889 a Belgian Jesuit, Father Henry Dussart,
discovered in the public library at Saint Omer, in a
manuscript by the historian James De Meyere, a

8

HANS MEMLINC

number of extracts from a diary kept from 1491 to
1498 by Rum wold De Doppere, an ecclesiastical notary
and clerk of the chapter of Saint Donatian at Bruges.
Among the entries of the year 1494 the following
occurs : — " On the i ith of August died at Bruges, master
John Memmelinc, then considered to be the most skil-
ful and excellent painter in the whole of Christendom.
He drew his origin from the ecclesiastical principality
of Mainz (Oriundus erat Magunciaco), and is buried
at Saint Giles'/' no doubt in the churchyard where
John PreVost, Lancelot Blondeel, and a number of other
painters found their place of rest. This discovery re-
opens, but certainly does not settle, the origin of the
family ; his parents may have removed from Guelder-
land to the neighbourhood of Mainz. If they were
natives of Mainz, the choice of his children's guardian
remains to be accounted for. In either case, as he
settled in and became a citizen of Bruges, where the
Netherlandish termination of his name was adopted,
the form Memlinc should be adhered to.*

The date of Memlinc's birth is not known, but it
was probably between 1430 and 1435. He most likely
served his apprenticeship under some painter of Mainz
or of Koln. I am indeed convinced that he must have
worked in the latter city as a journeyman, and prob-
ably during a considerable period before coming into

* It is probable that he only assumed the name of Memlinc when he
acquired the right of citizenship at Bruges, and that prior to that he
had been known by a patronymic, or as Hans the painter.

BIOGRAPHICAL 9

the Netherlands. Vasari and Guicciardini both men-
tion him as a pupil of Roger de la Pasture (van der
Weyden) of Tournay, who settled in Brussels in 1435,
and died in June 1464 ; but as Roger went to Rome
in 1449, and did not return until late in the following
year, Memlinc cannot have entered his service before,
at earliest, the autumn of 1450, and it is most probable
that he did not do so until even later. When he
came to Bruges we know not, but in all probability
in or before 1467. In that or the following year he
no doubt painted the portrait of the medallist Nicolas
di Forzore Spinelli of Arezzo, now in the Van Ertborn
collection at Antwerp, as also a triptych for Sir John
Donne, now at Chatsworth. Spinelli was during that
year in the service of Charles the Bold as seal engraver,
and Donne was probably one of the Yorkists who came
to Bruges for the marriage of Charles and Margaret
of York.

It Is therefore fairly certain that Memlinc came to
Bruges in or before 1467, and that he was already a
master-painter. His name does not appear in any
guild register that has been preserved, so that we
do not know where he proved himself to be qualified
to practise his art as such. Owing, doubtless, to his
being in the employ of Charles the Bold he was not
obliged to join the Bruges guild when he settled in
the town.

The following dates may be relied on as accurate ;
they comprise, I believe, all that can be so described : —

io HANS MEMLINC

1470-80. During this decade Memlinc married Anne,
daughter of Louis De Valkenaere.

1478. The altar - piece painted for the illuminator

William Vrelant, presented by him to the
guild of Saint John and Saint Luke (Stationers
and Illuminators), and placed in their chapel
at the Austin Canons' Church of Saint Bar-
tholomew, commonly called the Abbey of
Eeckhout. Now in the Royal Gallery at Turin.

1479. The triptych painted for Brother John Floreins,

having for its principal subject the Adoration
of the Magi, completed.

1479. The altar-piece of Saint John's Church, attached

to the Hospital, completed.

1480, before Easter (April 2). The altar-piece painted

for Peter Bultinc, presented by him to the
guild of the Tanners, and placed in their
chapel in the Church of Our Lady. Now
in the Gallery at Munich.

1480, May, or even earlier. A large stone house — domus
magna lapidea — in the street leading from the
Flemish bridge to the ramparts, with two
smaller adjacent houses, purchased by Mem-
linc, then a well-to-do citizen. Out of the
247 wealthiest, 106 were taxed at the same
amount as he, and only 140 at higher rates.

1480, May 8. John Verhanneman inscribed as appren-
tice of Memlinc in the register of the guild of
Painters.

BIOGRAPHICAL 11

1480. The shutters of the Stationers' altar-piece, painted
on the inner side at the expense of the guild,
completed and placed. These are lost.

1480. The portraits of William Moreel and his wife
painted. Now in the Museum at Brussels.

1480. The portrait of Mary Moreel, daughter of the
above, as the Sibyl Sambetha, painted. Now
at Saint John's Hospital, Bruges.

1483. Passchier van der Meersch, natural son of a

priest of the same name, inscribed as pupil
of Memlinc in the register of the guild of
Painters; he died in 1501.

1484. Interior of the altar-piece of the Moreel chantry

completed. Now in the Museum of the

Academy at Bruges.
1487. Death of Memlinc's wife.
1487. Diptych painted for Martin van Nieuwenhove.

Now at Saint John's Hospital.

1487. Portrait of a man. Now in the Offices at Florence.
1489. October 21. The "Shrine of Saint Ursula" being

completed, the relics for which it was

prepared deposited therein by Giles De

Bardemaker, Bishop of Sarepta.
1491. Polyptych altar-piece of the Greverade chantry

in the cathedral at Lubeck completed.

As to Memlinc's life and work after 1491 we have
no information. As has been already stated, he died
on the nth of August 1494, and was buried in the

12 HANS MEMLINC

churchyard of Saint Giles. He left three sons, John,
Cornelius, and Nicolas, who were still minors — that
is, under twenty-five years of age — on loth December
1495, when their guardians brought into court the sum
of io/ gr. in cash, amount realised by the sale of
their father's chattels. The houses and land which
they inherited, and on which there were various annual
charges, amounting in all to I/, gs. lod. gr., passed
in 1 509 into the hands of another painter, Louis Boels,
who was dean of the guild in 1513, and died in 1522.

CHAPTER II

AUTHENTIC WORKS

THE earliest pictures which can with certainty be
ascribed to Memlinc are the portrait of Nicolas Spinelli
and the triptych of the Donne family. Spinelli, born
in 1430, was in 1467 and 1468 in Flanders, in the
service of Charles the Bold as seal engraver, and
probably in Bruges, where members of the family were
residing. In 1474 he was back in Florence ; in 1493
he left Italy and settled in Lyons, where he died in
1499. His portrait, formerly in the possession of
Baron Denon, was, at the sale of his collection in 1826,
purchased by M. van Ertborn, who bequeathed it to
the Museum at Antwerp. It is a bust ; the face, in
three-quarters, turned towards the left, is that of an
energetic, full-blooded Italian of from thirty-five to
forty years of age, with black hair escaping in long
thick curls from under a black cap. He wears a black
close-fitting dress, with white linen round the neck,
and in his left hand holds, so as to show the entire
face, a coin with a profile head of the Emperor
Nero with this inscription : NERO CLAVDius C/ESAR
AVGustus GERManicus TRibunicia Potestati iMPERator.
The background is a charming, well-wooded, sunny
13

14 HANS MEMLINC

landscape traversed by a stream on which are two
swans ; on the farther side is a man on a white horse,
and on the near bank to the left a palm tree, probably
introduced to signify that the person represented was
an Italian.

The triptych of the Donne family is a fine work,
and is by itself a sufficient proof that Memlinc must
have practised his art for a considerable time prior to
its execution. The centre panel represents a group
of nine figures — the Blessed Virgin and Child, with
attendant angels, the donors and their saintly pro-
tectors in a spacious open gallery, the columns of
which have their capitals adorned with armorial
escucheons bearing, one, azure, a wolf salient argent,
langued gules, Donne ; the other, per pale, i, Donne ;
2, argent, a maunch sable, Hastings.

The Virgin, very dignified, and deep in meditation,
is enthroned on a brass faldstool beneath a canopy
with a cloth of honour of rich brocade, her feet resting
on an oriental carpet. With her right hand she
supports the Divine Infant seated on her lap, while
she holds in her left the Book of Wisdom, on the
leaves of which the Child's left hand rests, though
He is looking away from it and stretching out His
hand towards the angel on the right, who has
ceased playing his violin and is holding up a rosy
apple, his face beaming with joy at having attracted
the Child's attention. On the left, another angel in
a girded alb is playing on a portable organ. Beyond

Ha nfstangl ph o to ]

[Duke of Devonshire's Collection, Chats-worth

THE BLESSED VIRGIN AND CHILD, WITH ANGELS, SAINTS AND DONORS

(Centre of Triptych)

c. 1468

AUTHENTIC WORKS 15

these Saint Katherine and Saint Barbara are presenting
the donor, Sir John Donne, and his wife and daughter ;
the latter kneels behind her mother. Farther off, on the
shutters, Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the
Evangelist, both standing: the one pointing to the lamb
he bears on his left arm ; the other making the sign
of the cross over the poisoned cup. The background
of the entire composition is formed by a most pleasing
sunny landscape, in which are seen a winding river
with swans, a water mill, with the miller carrying a
sack of corn into his house, and, close behind him, an
ass ; farther away to the right a man is crossing a
bridge, at the head of which is a tower; still farther
off are a man on horseback, a cow, and a round tower ;
on the left, beyond the river, are a meadow with a
bull, and a man in red, on a white horse, about to enter
a wood. In the background of the right shutter, close
to one of the columns, a man — supposed by some to
be Memlinc himself — is looking in and gazing at the
group in the centre. Between the columns on the left
shutter is seen a court with a gabled wooden gatehouse
at the farther end, and on a low wall in front of it,
a peacock.

On the exterior of the shutters are grisaille figures
in niches : Saint Christopher holding a blossoming
staff, and bearing on his shoulders the Divine Child,
who stretches out His hand to bless Saint Anthony,
represented on the other panel with a book and bell in
his right hand, a staff in his left, and a hog at his side.

16 HANS MEMLINC

The Virgin and Child, the angels and saints, are
good examples of types to which Memlinc long ad-
hered ; the Babe on the Virgin's lap is most skilfully
painted and quite true to nature ; the Child on Saint
Christopher's shoulder is also excellent. Especially
fine and full of expression are the portraits of the
donor, Sir John Donne, and his wife Elisabeth, third
and youngest daughter of Sir Leonard Hastings by
his wife Alice, daughter of Thomas, Lord Camoys ;
both wear the badge of Edward IV., the collar of
roses and suns, to the clasp of which is appended the
white lion of the house of Marche. Every detail of
the dress and ornaments of the figures is finished with
wonderful delicacy, as is also the landscape. As a
composition, however, the picture in the interior has
one defect, derived, doubtless, from Roger de la Pasture,
noticeable in a less degree in several of his later
pictures. In aiming at perfect symmetry and at the
individualisation of each figure he has failed to express
the relation between them : the two Saints John
especially seem as if most carefully posted to balance
each other, and as a consequence are wanting in life ;
the donors and their daughter, admirable and true to
nature, kneel wholly absorbed in prayer to the Virgin
and Child, whose presence they only mentally realise.

The donor of this picture, Sir John Donne of
Kidwelly, County Caermarthen, son of Griffith Donne
and Janet Scudamore, married Elisabeth, daughter of
Sir Leonard Hastings of Kerkby, and sister of William,

II anfstiingl photo}

\_Duke of Devonshire s Collection, Chatsivorth

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST AND ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST

(Inside of Shutters of Triptych)
c. 1468

AUTHENTIC WORKS 17

first Lord Hastings, Lord Chamberlain of Edward IV.
Sir John was slain at the battle of Edgecote, 26th July
1469. This triptych must have been painted between
1461, when Edward adopted the badge which Sir John
and his wife are wearing, and 1469 ; probably in 1468,
when a number of Yorkists came to Bruges to assist at the
wedding of Charles the Bold and Margaret of York.
Besides the daughter represented in the picture, Sir
John had two sons, Edward and Griffith. Had the
triptych been painted in England they would no doubt
have been represented kneeling behind their father.
We may therefore feel pretty certain that Memlinc
was at this time in Bruges, and that he then — if not
previously — became acquainted with the principal
artists who were summoned from Tournay, Brussels,
Louvain, Valenciennes, Cambray, Arras, Douay, Lille,
Ipres, Audenarde, and Ghent to the Flemish capital
to paint the decorations which on that occasion were
carried out on an unusually splendid scale. Among
them were James Daret and Philip Truffin of Tournay,
Livin van Lathem of Brussels, Daniel De Rycke and
Hugh van der Goes of Ghent. The last had only quite
recently — 5th May 1467 — been admitted as free-
master into the guild of Saint Luke at Ghent.

The gallery at Munich contains a small panel falsely
signed H. V. D. GOES 1472 by an ignorant forger. It
bears a figure of Saint John the Baptist seated on a
rocky bank overgrown with herbage and moss. He
is clad in camels' hair, with a red mantle knotted over
B

i8 HANS MEMLINC

his right shoulder, and turns slightly to the left, pointing
to the lamb reposing on the turf at his side. In the
background to the right is a grove of trees with a little
stream at which a deer is slaking its thirst ; to the left
are rocks of rather ugly form. The composition is
most carefully painted, and very delicately finished.
It is probably the dexter leaf of a diptych formerly
at Padua in the possession of the well-known humanist,
Peter Bembo, which is thus described by the anonymous
writer edited by Morelli. " Padova. In casa di M.
Pietro Bembo. El quadretto in due portelle del S.
Juan Battista vestito, con 1'agnello, che siede in un
paese da una parte, e la nostra Donna con el puttino
dall' altra in un altro paese ; furono de man de Zuan
Memeglino, 1'anno 1470, salvo el vero." The description
clearly fits this panel, which is undoubtedly one of
Memlinc's early works. The date assigned to it may
possibly have been on the frame of this or the other
leaf, which is unfortunately lost.

In the Louvre at Paris is an exquisite little diptych
painted about the year 1475, the leaves of which, long
separated, have lately been happily reunited. On the
dexter leaf the Blessed Virgin is represented seated in
the foreground of a meadow enclosed by bushes and
trees. Immediately behind her is a trellis covered
with red and white roses. She supports with both
hands the Infant Jesus, who, bending forward, places
the bridal ring on the third right-hand finger of Saint
Katherine, who is seated on the right, in the immediate

>t. John's Hospital^ Bruges

TRIPTYCH

(Outside of Shutter)
14

AUTHENTIC WORKS 19

front, her left hand resting on a book lying open on
her lap. Opposite her is Saint Barbara holding an open
book, but with her eyes fixed on the Divine Babe ;
behind her, her usual emblem, the tower. To the
right of Our Lady, beyond Saint Katherine, are Saint
Agnes with her lamb, and Saint Cecilia playing on
a portable organ. Facing them are Saint Margaret
with the dragon she has overcome, and Saint Lucy
holding a dish in which are two eyes. High up in
the sky are three musical angels.

On the other leaf, the donor, John Du Celier, a
member of the guild of merchant grocers, in a robe
lined with fur, is kneeling on the turf, his hands joined
in prayer. Behind him stands his patron, Saint John
the Baptist, pointing to Our Lord, whilst his left hand
rests on his client's shoulder. The foreground is
covered with richly varied vegetation, amidst which
the characteristic leaves of the plantain, dandelion, and
daisy are prominent. A broad belt of trees, in front
of which a winding stream flows towards an islanded
sea in the distance, separates the principal scene from
those in the background. On a hill to the left, Saint
George on horseback at the foot of a rock is thrusting
his lance down the throat of the dragon, an episode
full of life. Farther off, on an island to the right, is
seen Saint John the Evangelist seated with a book
lying open on his lap, looking up at the Apocalyptic
vision of the woman clothed with the sun, with the
moon beneath her feet, giving the Child, to which she

20 HANS MEMLINC

has just given birth, to an angel, and over against her
the seven-headed dragon.

The foreground, boldly painted with a full brush,
contrasts with the transparent tones of the flesh tints
and draperies ; some of the accessory details, very
lightly painted, have almost disappeared : for instance,
the hare and deer feeding in the wood beyond the
Baptist, the angel musicians, and the angel and dragon.
The figures of the virgin saints are slender and grace-
ful, and the expression of their faces, very varied and
executed with minute precision, is charming ; the
donor is evidently a careful study from life. At the
foot of the second leaf, just beneath the donor, is an
escucheon charged with his arms : quarterly, I and 4
gules, two bends or, on a canton of the field a bend
embattled and counter - embattled argent, Du Celier ;
2 and 3 argent, on a chevron between three martlets
sable as many escallops or, Van der Woestine ; over
all, on an escucheon of pretence quarterly, I and 4
or, a cross sable Gruuthuuse, 2 and 3 gules, a saltire
argent, Van der Aa ; crest, on a helmet wreathed and
mantled gules and or, a stag's head proper.

The figures of Saint John the Evangelist and Saint
George were probably introduced in memory of the
donor's father, John Du Celier, a member of the
council of Flanders, and his brother George.

The gallery at Turin possesses one, of Memlinc's
early works, painted for his friend and neighbour, the
miniaturist William Vrelant, who gave it in 1478 to

AUTHENTIC WORKS 21

the guild of Saint John and Saint Luke (Stationers).
It adorned the altar of their chapel in the Church of
Saint Bartholomew, belonging to the Austin Canons
of the Eeckhout, until 1619, when it was removed to
a side wall, and five years later was sold to make
room for an organ. Later on it came into the posses-
sion of the convent of Friar Preachers at Bosco, near
Alessandria in Piedmont, and at the end of the last
century was saved from the French, and subsequently
presented to the king.

On this panel, which is only 55 centimetres high
by 90 broad, the whole story of the Passion is por-
trayed, the various scenes being separated from one
another chiefly by means of buildings, intended to
represent Jerusalem, and outside its enclosing walls,
by rocks and hills. Commencing in the background,
on the right, the first scene represented is Our Lord's
triumphal entry into Jerusalem ; next, almost on a
level with this, but more towards the centre of the
picture, Christ is casting out of the temple those
who bought and sold therein ; below these, about
half-way down the panel, are represented the Last
Supper, and Judas conferring with the priests as to
the betrayal of Christ. Lower down on the extreme
left, in the Garden of Olives, separated by a moat
from the city walls, is the Agony in the Garden
with the three Apostles asleep. A multitude of armed
men, who have come out through a postern gate, are
hurrying up to the foreground where Judas is in the

22 HANS MEMLINC

act of kissing Our Lord, whilst Peter, with uplifted
sword, is about to strike Malchus, who, dropping the
lantern with which he has guided the troop, has fallen
back on one knee. The middle of the panel is occupied
by the following scenes, represented as taking place
in porticos opening on to a courtyard : Christ brought
before Pilate, whose wife is urging him to attend to
her request ; the scourging at the pillar ; the crowning
with thorns and mocking ; Christ before Herod, and
the Ecce Homo. In the courtyard the cross is being
prepared by two men, whose garments, lying on the
ground, are guarded by a dog. The procession to
Calvary is next seen wending its way through a gate-
way of the palace in the centre of the foreground,
and out through the city gate, on the left, beneath which
are grouped the Blessed Virgin, Saint John, and the
holy women. Just outside, Simon of Cyrene is raising
the cross, beneath the weight of which Our Lord has
fallen, at the foot of the hilly road winding round
the city walls. This road leads up to the middle of
the background, where are represented three more
scenes : the nailing to the cross, the death of Our Lord,
and the taking down from the cross. On the left, about
half-way down, is pictured the Entombment ; on the
extreme left, Christ delivering the just from Limbo ;
higher up, the Resurrection, and Christ appearing to
Mary Magdalene ; the upper corner being occupied by
a well-wooded, hilly landscape. In this picture, as in
those by Hubert van Eyck, very little sky is seen. In

(-> 5

AUTHENTIC WORKS 23

the corners of the immediate front, Vrelant and his
wife are represented kneeling in prayer.

This is a most remarkable work ; taken as a whole,
the composition surprises us by the talent with which
Memlinc has grouped the consecutive scenes of the
Passion, which seem to fall quite naturally into the
positions they occupy, while each scene viewed
separately excites one's admiration by the wonderful
delicacy with which every detail is finished. There
are in all considerably over two hundred figures of
men and women, besides horses and dogs, on every
one of which he has lavished the most loving care.
The colouring is brilliant and harmonious, and the
manner in which he has relieved the architecture with
statues and groups of sculpture, and imparted life
and light by the introduction of birds and other
animals, is most skilful. The portraits of the donors
are truly wonderful, and must have excited the
admiration of Vrelant, himself a miniaturist and
illuminator of talent, to whom Memlinc may have
wished to prove the superiority of oil over water-
colours.*

Some time before Easter 1480 Memlinc completed
another even finer picture, for a wealthy citizen of
Bruges named Peter Bultinc, who presented it to the

* A slightly enlarged sixteenth-century copy of this picture, which in
1637 belonged to Peter van Nieuwmunster, was in the loan exhibition of
early masters (Catalogue No. 17 bis) at Bruges in 1867 ; it then belonged
to the late Mr. Florimond Van de Poele of Schelderode.

24 HANS MEMLINC

guild of Tanners, of which he was a member. It
adorned the altar of their chapel in the Church of Our
Lady until 1764, when it was removed to the house
of the dean, who a few years later sold it to a
picture-dealer at Antwerp ; after having changed
hands several times, it was finally acquired from the
brothers Boissere"e for the Gallery at Munich.

The chief subject dealt with in this picture is the
story of the Manifestation of Our Lord to the Gentile
world, represented by the three Wise Men of the East,
who, guided by a star, were led to adore Our Lord at
Bethlehem. However, although the greater portion
of the panel is occupied by incidents of their story, we
find depicted both on the right and left various other
scenes from the life of Our Lord, in all of which the
idea which guided the painter would seem to have been
the emphasising of the Divine Revelation to mankind
in the great mystery of the Incarnation. Hence the
title, " The Light of the World," seems to be by far
the most appropriate for this picture, which was painted
for the eastern chapel of the Church of Our Lady.
That of "The Seven Joys of Mary," by which it is
more generally known, is quite misleading. Apart
from the fact that two of these Joys, the Visitation
and the Finding of the Child in the Temple, are not
represented here at all, it is clear, from the care with
which the details of the story of the Magi are repre-
sented, that the Blessed Virgin is by no means the
chief personage in the picture. On the other hand, it

Hanfstfingl photo}

CHRIST, THE LIGE

(Central portion- -A«j

14

OF THE WORLD

Htltion of the Magi)

[Munich

AUTHENTIC WORKS 25

may be urged that the two scenes of her Death and
Assumption, which conclude the series, hardly fit in
with the title of "Christ, the Light of the World."
Yet it requires no great stretch of the imagination
to make the whole harmonise, and to take these two
subjects as typical representations of the fact that, as
Our Lord is the light of the faithful through life, so
will He be in death, and for all eternity in Heaven.

Memlinc has, as we have already said, represented
the story of the Magi in great detail. We first see in
the extreme background the Wise Men, each in solitude
on the top of a mountain, watching for the appearance
of the star foretold by Balaam (Numbers xxiv, 17).
Two of them have fallen on their knees in prayer, the
third stands with uplifted arms, all gazing on the
brilliant star which has just appeared in the heavens.
Next we behold the three, seized with the desire to
visit the new-born king, of whose long-expected advent
the rise of the star has made them aware, journeying
by different roads, each with a retinue of mounted
followers, and meeting near a bridge to which these
roads converge. The third scene is that of their arrival
in Jerusalem, where Herod, at the entrance of his
palace, has come forth to greet them. A little farther
to the left, Herod is seen again conferring with the
chief priests and scribes under a portico. Presently,
having learnt the route to Bethlehem, the three kings,
with their gay cavalcade, emerge from the city and
proceed on their journey at a gallop, with banners

26 HANS MEMLINC

streaming in the wind. In the centre of the fore-
ground we see them at length arrived at the stable
of Bethlehem, a thatched structure somewhat fallen
into decay, with two windows at the back, through one
of which a man is gazing on the unwonted scene. At
the entrance the Blessed Virgin is seated, holding in
her arms her Divine Child. Her attitude is one of
calm dignity, and the expression of her face betokens
a holy peace, not to be disturbed even by the extra-
ordinary advent of the eastern sages, the oldest of
whom, kneeling, raises the outstretched hand of the
Child, and kisses it with reverential awe. The precious
vessel containing his offering has evidently already been
presented and accepted, for it stands on a table a
little to the right, beyond which Joseph, leaning on
his staff, and with head uncovered, meditates on the
scene which is being enacted before him. At the back
of the stable the meek-looking ass is peacefully con-
tinuing its meal at the manger, while the ox at its
side, startled by the noise, looks up anxiously.
Outside, the other two kings await their turn to adore,
each bearing in his hand a vase containing his gift
Beyond them, on each side, are grouped their attend-
ants, whose faces betray excitement, and the astonish-
ment they feel at the destination they have reached
after their long journey ; some are gazing in wonder
on the scene which others are earnestly discussing ;
another is leading a horse towards the stream at which
two more are being watered. Beyond these, on another

Hanfstiingl photo}

CHRIST, THE LIGH

1480

[Munich.

)F THE WORLD

AUTHENTIC WORKS 27

road to that by which they came, the troop is seen
riding away between rocky heights. Finally, in the
background, we see them embarking in three ships,
and sailing peacefully away homeward down a beautiful
stretch of water towards the far west, where the sun
is setting in glory. Thus we have the whole story of
the Magi brought before us with a vividness which
cannot fail to interest.

Turning to the extreme right of the picture, we find
a second series of events portrayed, commencing with
the Annunciation, where the Virgin, interrupted whilst
engaged in meditation, turns towards the archangel,
who, with upraised hand, greets her and delivers the
message of the Most High. Immediately beneath this
is a charming little group. On the grassy slope of a
hill a flock of sheep are grazing, tended by three shep-
herds, one of whom has been beguiling the time for
himself and his companions by playing on the bag-
pipes, when suddenly and silently an angel, clad in
flowing, snow-white robes, appears before them. All
three without moving, the piper without even raising
his fingers from the pipes he has ceased to play, listen
with rapt attention, but without any sign of fear, to
the glad tidings graciously delivered by the heavenly
messenger. Still lower down we get another glimpse
of the shepherds through an archway to the left of the
stable, as they hasten to adore the Infant Saviour.
Within the stable we see the Virgin Mother kneeling
in ecstasy before the new-born Babe, who lies on the

28 HANS MEMLINC

end of her mantle. An angel, with head bowed in
adoration, kneels beside her, while Joseph stands near
the entrance. These three scenes form, as it were, a
prelude to the main theme of the picture.

Herod, finding himself deceived by the Magi, who had
sailed quietly homeward without returning to Jerusalem,
is next represented by Memlinc as setting forth with
a company of soldiers on horseback to superintend
the Massacre of the Innocents, represented to the left
of the hill on which the shepherds are tending their
flock. Farther in the background are depicted in suc-
cession the miracles which occurred during the Flight
into Egypt — namely, those of the wheat which grew
and ripened in a day ; of the date-palm which bent
down and offered its fruit to the Blessed Virgin as
she rested beneath its shade, whilst Joseph, having
unsaddled the ass and left it to graze according
to its will, went to fetch water from a spring hard
by ; and, lastly, the idol falling in pieces from its
pedestal.

On the left of the panel we find yet another series
of incidents from the life of Our Lord, commencing
with the Resurrection, represented in the immediate
foreground to the left of the central subject. In front
of the sepulchre, the entrance to which, in the side
of a rock, is closed by a slab of stone, the newly-risen
Saviour stands triumphant, whilst the soldiers are
sleeping soundly all around. A little farther back he
is represented appearing to the Magdalene ; two other

AUTHENTIC WORKS 29

Marys are coming down a path which leads to the
sepulchre. Still farther back, and more to the left,
Our Lord appears to His Mother as she sits reading in
retirement ; across the landscape, beyond her abode,
we see the two disciples, on the way to Emmaus,
joined by Our Lord, and again, farther on, through
the window of a house, sitting at supper. Farther
away Our Lord, on the seashore, appears to the
apostles whilst busily engaged in fishing. A little
nearer the front, on the summit of a rocky mount, the
Blessed Virgin and the apostles stand looking up at
Our Lord, who blesses them as He ascends. In the
foreground, at the extreme left, through an arched
opening, we see the Holy Ghost descending in the
form of a dove on the Blessed Virgin, seated, her
hands joined, absorbed in meditation, with a book
lying open on her lap, the apostles standing and kneel-
ing around in a variety of attitudes, as with uplifted
hands they look with reverential awe at the Dove
soaring above, whose illuminating rays fall upon them.
Higher up, and close to the edge of the panel, are
represented the Death of Our Lady and her Assump-
tion into Heaven.

The different scenes in this picture are separated
from one another by landscapes, buildings, hills, and
rocks. The buildings, though of necessity somewhat
crowded together, are less so than in the Turin picture,
in which they extend over the greater part of the panel,
whilst here far more importance is given to the land-

30 HANS MEMLINC

scape. The picture is illuminated throughout by an
equable light, the prevalent character being brightness
without any great contrast of shadow. The more one
examines the picture, the greater one's astonishment
at the amount of work which Memlinc has lavished
on it, at the exquisite beauty of the various scenes,
the marvellous ingenuity displayed in separating them
from one another, and the skill with which they balance
and are brought into one harmonious whole. The
figures are admirably drawn, and full of expression and
character ; indeed, in this picture Memlinc is seen to
advantage, inasmuch as in the whole series of scenes
there is only one, the Massacre of the Innocents, in
which evil passions had to be rendered, and he has
given as little prominence as possible to the soldiers
who are executing Herod's orders. The angel who
appears to the shepherds is a fine conception of a
celestial being in earthly guise, whilst the shepherds
themselves have intelligent faces, well in keeping with
an ideal of those who were the first to receive the glad
tidings of the Saviour's birth. If we turn to another
group, that to the left of the Virgin in the centre, how
admirably the different figures are characterised and
contrasted : the eager anxiety of the lad who is leaning
forward, straining every nerve so as not to miss any
detail of the scene ; the staid, meditative air of the
old man pondering in silence on its meaning, which is
being discussed by the two next to him ; the attendant
who lingers to look as he leads his steed towards

Hanfstdngl photo}

CHRIST, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

(Portrait of Peter Bultinc and his son)

1480

[Munich

AUTHENTIC WORKS 31

the stream contrasts also well with another entirely
absorbed in attending to two other horses.

The portraits of the donors are also remarkable.
Instead of being placed facing his wife and the centre,
Peter Bultinc kneels with his son outside the stable,
in the right foreground, contemplating the new-born
Babe through the window. Behind them, on the
farther side of an archway, over a road leading up to
the hills, is a post to which is suspended an escucheon
bearing argent, a chevron sable between two estoiles
in chief gules, and in base, a lion rampant of the second ;
crest, on a helmet, wreathed and mantled argent and
sable, an estoile gules between two wings erect sable.
His wife, Katherine van Riebeke, kneels in the left-
hand corner of the panel, just outside the room where
the Pentecostal scene is represented ; opposite her, on
a wall, is seated a comical little monkey, holding a
strap attached to an escucheon charged with her arms :
argent, a trefoil slipped vert between three chess rooks
sable. The details of their costume and of the rich and
varied apparel of the Wise Men and their followers are
faithfully rendered. The horses ridden by the latter
are fine, spirited animals, and contrast with the camels
beside them. Among many pleasing little details
which give life and brightness to the work, are a
beautiful little greyhound resting in the foreground
of the principal scene, and the birds perched on
the thatched roof of the stable and flying between
the rocks ; in truth, there is hardly a square inch

32 HANS MEMLINC

in the entire picture which does not offer a detail
of interest.

We do not know when the two last described pictures
were commenced, nor how long Memlinc was occupied
in executing them, but whilst engaged on the latter
he undertook the execution of two triptychs, one for
John Floreins, a brother of the Hospital of Saint John
at Bruges, and another larger and more important
work for the high altar of the church attached to that
institution.

The smaller of these triptychs was painted for
John Floreins, alias van der Riist, a clerk, related to
Henry de Berghes, Bishop of Cambray, born in 1443.
He entered the community in 1472, and held the office
of spiritual master from 1489 to 1497. In 1489 a
pestilence broke out in Bruges, and among other
victims carried off all the professed choir-brothers of
the Hospital except Floreins. Anxious that the com-
munity should not die out, he rather imprudently
admitted four servants of the Hospital and several con-
valescent patients as brothers, trusting that in gratitude
to God for having escaped death they would be all
the more zealous in serving Him and in ministering to
the wants of the poor. Instead of that they neglected
their duties, accused him of having dissipated the
patrimony of the poor, and destroyed his accounts
and papers so that he should not be able to refute
these charges which, however, they were unable to
prove. They moreover tried to set the friends and

Cs]

ffi ^
H .S

fc- S

°E

§1

Pi ~
O o

91

[St. John's Hospital, Bruges

TRIPTYCH

(Inside of Shutter)
H79

[Sf. Johns Hospital, Bruges

TRIPTYCH
(Inside of Shutter)

H79

AUTHENTIC WORKS 33

benefactors of the Hospital against him, and to persuade
the sisters, twice as numerous as themselves, to rebel
against his authority. To remedy this state of things
Floreins drew up a scheme of reform, which was
approved by the Dean of Christianity, Baldwin De
Borghere, and by others well acquainted with the institu-
tion ; but, owing to the possession of the see of Tournay
being then disputed by two claimants, he was unable
to obtain episcopal approbation necessary to give it
effect. At last Floreins, finding it impossible to restore
order, resigned his office. He continued to live in the
Hospital as a simple brother until his death in 1 504.

The subject represented on the central panel is the
" Adoration of the Magi." The Virgin Mother is seated
in the middle of the picture, supporting with both hands
the Divine Infant. On the left the oldest of the three
kings, prostrate in adoration, is kissing His feet, while
the second, kneeling on the right, offers a costly vase
to the Child, who turns smiling towards him. The
third king, a coal-black negro, cap in hand, enters on
the left bearing his gift. Joseph, holding the hanap
offered by the first king, stands in the background to
the left of the Virgin ; between him and the negro a
man with a yellow cap and a stubbly beard is seen
looking in at the scene through a window. The donor,
brother John Floreins, kneels on the extreme right,
turning over the leaf of a prayer-book which rests on
a half-ruined wall ; one of the stones of the arch, close
to his head, bears the indication of his age, thirty-six ;
C

34 HANS MEMLINC

behind him stands his younger brother James. In
the background are the ox and ass, and through an
opening beyond them is a charming perspective of
a street, down which the suite of the kings, mounted
on dromedaries and horses, are approaching the stable ;
in the distance is the town gate.

The subjects on the interior of the shutters are the
" Nativity " and the " Presentation in the Temple." In
the former Mary kneels in adoration, her arms extended
towards the Divine Child, who lies on her mantle,
smiling at His Mother. Two lovely angels kneel,
and gaze in rapture on the new-born Babe. In the
background are the ox and ass, and Joseph approach-
ing with a lighted candle which he protects with his
right hand. From the heavens rays of light are pro-
jected towards the Child. On the opposite panel the
Presentation is represented as taking place in a lofty,
round-arched building. The priest, standing at the
farther side of an altar in the immediate front on the
left, receives on a linen cloth the Child from His
Mother. Between them, a little farther back, is the
aged Anna, and on the right, Joseph, who is taking
the doves out of the basket he holds.

The outer side of each shutter represents a single
seated figure, seen through a cusped arch. On the
right, Saint John the Baptist pointing to the lamb at
his side; on the left, a turbaned woman holding up
the napkin with the imprinted image of Our Lord's
face. The background of these panels is an open land-

•pital) Bruges

TRIPTYCH

(Outside of Shutter)

1479

AUTHENTIC WORKS 35

scape with trees and a river, on the bank of which
Saint John is baptising Our Lord. The columns at
the sides of the arches support sculptured figures repre-
senting the sin of our first parents, and their expulsion
from Paradise. This triptych retains its original
painted frames, with the hinges and lock. At the
head of the frame are two small escucheons, one on
the dexter side bearing sable, three chevrons or, Floreins ;
the other, argent, three bends sinister or, over all the
ombre of a lion rampant, De Silly. At the sides are the
initials J. F., and at the foot, this inscription : DIT •

WERCK ' DEDE * MAKEN * BROEDER ' IAN ' FLOREINS '
ALIAS ' VANDER ' RUST • BROEDER ' PROFFES ' VANDE '
HOSPITALE ' VAN ' SINT * IANS ' IN ' BRVGGHE . \ .
ANNO * M ' CCCC ' LXXIX ' OPVS ' IOHANIS * MEMLINC.

This is a highly-finished picture, and technically the
most perfect work completed by Memlinc before the
end of 1480. The composition is freer and less con-
strained than in the Donne triptych, while the colouring,
more vivid, presents greater contrasts of light and
shade. Compared with Roger de la Pasture's painting
of the " Adoration of the Magi " in the Munich Gallery,
the central subject here is far sweeter and more
delicate ; the kings are less grand and majestic, but
their countenances are more expressive of devotion.
Memlinc has also avoided the blunder committed by
Roger in suspending a crucifix in the stable.

The large triptych painted for the high altar of the
church was commenced in, or probably even before,

36 HANS MEMLINC

1475, and terminated in 1479. The central panel
represents the Blessed Virgin seated on a metal fald-
stool, with the Infant Jesus on her lap, surrounded
by saints and angels, in a spacious pillared portico or
open gallery. A cloth of honour of rich brocade is
suspended from a canopy, immediately beneath which
two graceful angels hold a crown over her head. Two
others kneel beside her, one on her right a little farther
back, in alb and tunic, playing on a portable organ ;
the other on her left, in girded alb, holds the Book
of Wisdom, of which Our Lady is about to turn over
a leaf, whilst she supports with her right hand the
Infant Christ. He holds an apple in His left, and,
bending forward, places the bridal ring on the fourth
finger of the left hand of Saint Katherine, who is
seated a little nearer the front ; the sword and wheel,
emblematic of her martyrdom, lie on the ground
beside her. Opposite her, Saint Barbara, seated, with
the emblematic tower containing the monstrance and
Host behind her, is reading attentively a book she holds
with both hands. In the background are the patrons
of the hospital, both standing ; on the right, Saint
John the Baptist, with the lamb at his side; and on
the left, Saint John the Evangelist, youthful, mild,
and pensive, making the sign of the cross over the
poisoned chalice which he holds in his left hand.
The carved capitals of the pillars on the right repre-
sent the vision of Zachary, and the birth and naming
of the Baptist. Between these pillars is seen a lovely

[6V. Johns Hospital, Bruges

TRIPTYCH OF THE HIGH ALTAR
1479

[St. John's Hospital, Bruges

ALTAR-PIECE

(Inside of Shutter)

J479

AUTHENTIC WORKS 37

landscape, continued on the right shutter, the fore-
ground of which is occupied by Herod's palace and
courtyard. In the landscape the Baptist is represented
praying in a solitary forest, preaching on a rocky
hill to a group of seven persons, pointing out Our
Lord to his listeners, baptising Him, pointing Him
out to Andrew and John, and being led to prison.
On the extreme right of the shutter the daughter of
Herodias is dancing before the king to music played
by minstrels in the gallery of the banqueting hall,
and in the immediate front she is holding out a dish,
on which the executioner is depositing the head of
Saint John. The burning of his body at Sebaste, by
order of Julian the Apostate, depicted just to the
right of the centre, completes the series of scenes
from his legend. On the extreme left of the centre
panel, beyond Saint Barbara's tower, a brother of the
Hospital is represented looking on at a respectful dis-
tance ; the master of the community, Brother Jodoc
Willems,* appears between the pillars to the left of
the Virgin's throne, superintending the gauging of
wine beside the town crane in the Flemish street ;
the little Romanesque Church of Saint John is seen
in the distance, and to the right, the house known
as Dinant, at the corner of the Coornblomme street,

* In the Official Notice of the Hospital pictures this figure has always
been described as the portrait of Brother John Floreins, but the office of
gauger was held by the master. Brother Jodoc Willems was master from
1475 to 1488, when he was succeeded by Floreins, who held the office
until 1497.

38 HANS MEMLINC

in course of construction. The landscape background
on this side offers the following scenes from the life
of the beloved disciple : — his immersion in the cauldron
of boiling oil ; his being led to a boat in which a
soldier is waiting to transport him to the isle of
Patmos ; his baptising the philosopher Crato, behind
whom kneel his wife and two disciples in a chapel,
with a rood-beam and crucifix. The carved capitals
of the pillars represent the restoration to life of
Drusiana, and Saint John drinking unharmed the
poisoned wine, which proves fatal to the priests of
Diana.

The left shutter represents the saint seated in the
isle of Patmos, contemplating the Apocalyptic vision,
a composition of wonderful accuracy and taste, and,
I think, the earliest example of so many of the
incidents being included in one picture. The saint
seated among the rocks in the left of the im-
mediate foreground, his hands resting on a book
lying open on his lap, is gazing reverently, and with
rapt attention, on the wondrous vision of the eternal
King of Kings, enthroned with the Lamb at His side,
surrounded by the twenty-four ancients, and the four
living creatures (Revelation iv, 2-4 ; v, 6 and 7). Below
this, in the mid-distance, are the four figures of Famine,
War, Pestilence, and Death, on horseback, galloping
furiously on inland from the sea, scattering, spoiling,
and slaying. Beyond these are seen the stars falling
from Heaven, and the mountains and islands moved

•

S/. Johns Hospital^ Bruges

ALTAR-PIECE

(Inside of Shutter)

H79

[St. John s Hospital, Bruges

ALTAR-PIECE

(Outside of Shutter)

Portraits of Brothers A. Seghers and J. De Guenlnc

AUTHENTIC WORKS 39

out of their places, and ships sinking, whilst the
affrighted people are seeking to hide themselves in
caverns. Farther away are the great star falling on
the earth, the key of the bottomless pit, with the
human-headed locusts coming out on the earth from
amidst its smoke ; Apollyon and the army of horse-
men ; the mighty angel clothed with a cloud, with
a rainbow round him, and with legs like pillars of
fire. High up in heaven are seen the woman clothed
with the sun, and with the moon under her feet,
and the great red dragon over against her, an angel
taking up her child, herself flying away into the
wilderness ; the battle between the angels and devils,
and Michael casting down Satan.

On the exterior of the shutters Memlinc has painted
the portraits of four members of the community, two
brothers and two sisters, protected by their patron
saints. All four are represented kneeling, their hands
joined devoutly in prayer. On the right shutter,
Brothers Anthony Seghers and James De Kueninc ;
Saint Anthony is reading a book held in his right hand ;
at his side is a pig; Saint James the Great, as usual,
is represented in the costume of a pilgrim. On the
left, Sisters Agnes Casembrood and Clare van Hulsen,
the patroness of the former accompanied by a lamb,
whilst Saint Clare holds a monstrance with the
Blessed Sacrament. The saints are admirably char-
acterised, and the portraits of the religious are masterly
productions, full of individuality.

1

40 HANS MEMLINC

Anthony Seghers, admitted into the community in
1455, held the office of bursar from 1461 to 1465,
and from 1469 until his death in 1475 ; James De
Kueninc, admitted in 1470, died in 1489; Agnes
Casembrood, admitted in 1447, was prioress from 1462
until her death in 1480 ; and Clare van Hulsen,
admitted in 1427, died in 1479. The altar-piece
must have been ordered in Anthony Seghers' lifetime
— that is, before 1475, — and, judging by the dimensions
and character of the work, probably some years
earlier. It was completed in 1479. The picture has
suffered much from overcleaning and restoration.*
The frame of the central panel bears the inscription :
OPVS ' IOHANNIS • MEMLING ' ANNO * M ' CCCC ' LXXIX '
1479, followed by a merchant's mark, that employed by
the Floreins family ; these have been retouched.

Among those who had recourse to Memlinc's talent
was' a notable citizen, whose great - grandfather, a
Savoyard, had settled in Bruges in 1336. William
Moreel (the Flemish form of Morelli) was a member
of the corporation of grocers, who, after holding
various civic offices, was chosen burgomaster in
1478, and again in 1483. He was an able, strong-
willed man, who took a leading part in the
financial and political affairs of the town. He was
an energetic defender of the liberties of the country
against the French, and, later on, against Maximilian,

* In 1818 it was restored by M. J. F. Ducq of Bruges; it had
suffered much from damp, and the paint was threatening to fall.

Hanfstdngl photo]

WILLIAM MOREEL
c. 1480 *•

[Brussels Museui

1

AUTHENTIC WORKS 41

who imprisoned him in 1481, and who, when he made
peace with the States of Flanders, refused to include
him in the general amnesty. Later on Philip the
Handsome granted him an indemnity of ioo/. gr.,
and in 1491 we find that there were only ten in-
habitants of the city who were taxed at a higher rate
than he.

Among the pictures of the fifteenth century in the
Museum at Brussels are two panels, probably the
shutters of a small triptych, on the interior of which
are bust portraits of Moreel and his wife, Barbara
van Vlaenderberch. They are represented facing each
other, their hands joined in prayer, in a gallery
between the porphyry columns of which are views of
a wooded landscape with a couple of castles. On
this background their heads stand out in good relief.
On the exterior are two armorial escucheons : the
husband's bearing quarterly, I and 4, or, on a chevron
engrailed between three Moors' heads couped sable
and wreathed argent a chevronnel of the third, Moreel ;
2 and 3, sable, a saltire argent, Luucx. His wife's
bears : per pale, I as above ; 2 quarterly, I and 4
argent, a cross potent sable, in chief a label of three
points gules, 2 and 3, vert, a cross botonny fitchy or,
on a chief argent, three pallets sable, within a bordure
gules.

In the Hospital of Saint John at Bruges is a half-
length portrait of Mary, daughter of William Moreel,
on a panel of the same dimensions as the preceding.

42 HANS MEMLINC

She is turned to the right, her face seen in three-
quarters ; her hands superposed, rest on the edge
of a table or parapet. She wears, over a crimson
bodice, a brown dress trimmed with white fur, and
girt with a broad green sash ; her hair, brushed back,
is confined within a black conical head-dress, with
a gauze kerchief which covers half her face. Seven
finger-rings and a gold chain with a pendant cruci-
form jewel complete her costume. Background, dark
greenish blue. In the upper dexter corner is a
cartouche with the inscription : SIBYLLA SAMBETHA
QV^E ET PERSICA, AN : ANTE CHRIST : NAT : 2040,
and on the frame at the foot, a scroll : ECCE BESTIA
CONCVLCABERIS, GIGNETVR DNS IN ORBEM TERRARVM,
GREMIV VIRGINIS ERIT SALVS GENTIVM, INVISIBILE
VERBV PALPABITVR.

Moreel also employed Memlinc to paint an altar-
piece for the chantry chapel which he founded in the
church of Saint James at Bruges. This triptych, now
in the Museum of the Academy, is one of his ablest
and finest compositions. In the centre is seen Saint
Christopher bearing the Infant Christ on his shoulder
across a river. He supports himself with the trunk
of a young tree, and is looking up with an expression
of wonder, as if seeking an explanation of the incom-
prehensible burthen which is weighing him down.
The Holy Child, smiling graciously, enlightens and
blesses him. A hermit, leaning on a staff at the
mouth of a cave in one of the lofty rocks, between

Hanfstcingl ph o to\

[Brussels Museum

BARBARA VAN VLAENDERBERCH

(Wife of William Moreel)
c. 1480

[St. John's Hospital, Bruges

MARY MOREEL AS THE SIBYL SAMBETHA
1480

AUTHENTIC WORKS 43

which the river flows, holds up a lighted lantern.
On the right, stands Saint Maur, reading attentively
a book which rests on his left arm ; he wears a white
tunic, black scapular and cowl, and holds a crosier
in his right hand. On the left, Saint Giles, in black
habit, holding a closed book, and caressing a fawn
at his side; an arrow aimed at it has lodged in the
saint's right sleeve. On the right shutter, with his
five sons grouped behind him, is the burgomaster,
William Moreel, kneeling, with his hands joined at
a prayer-desk, on which lies an open book. He is
protected by Saint William of Maleval, who wears
over his steel armour the black habit of the order
of hermits which he founded. The arms of the order
are blazoned on the pennon of his lance ; at his feet
is a demon in the form of a wild beast. In the back-
ground, to the right, a moated manor, possibly Oost
Cleyhem, and a farmhouse with a church beyond it
on the left ; between them a wooded landscape. On
the left wing, Moreel's wife, protected by Saint Barbara,
kneels opposite her husband, with her eleven daughters,
the eldest of whom is clothed in the habit of a
Dominican nun. In the background are a castle and
trees. The figures in this triptych are admirably
grouped and - modelled. The refined and meditative
figures of Saint Maur and Saint Giles contrast well
with that of Saint Christopher, which is full of life
and vigour. The head of the donor is evidently
copied from the panel at Brussels, which was painted

44 HANS MEMLINC

direct from life ; not so that of his wife, who has here
a more sedate and aged appearance, probably due to
anxiety occasioned by the imprisonment of her hus-
band. The children are evidently true to nature, and
it is greatly to be regretted that the faces of several
of them have suffered both from time, and at the
hand of unskilful restorers. The figures, in grisaille,
of Saint John the Baptist and Saint George, on
the exterior, painted by an imitator of Memlinc,
were not added until later, probably in 1504, when
the endowment of the chapel was completed, and the
bodies of Moreel and his wife transferred from the
churchyard to the family vault*

The next picture in order of chronology is a diptych
painted for Martin van Nieuwenhove, member of a
noble family long settled in Bruges, who was elected
a member of the town council in 1492, and burgo-
master in 1497. It was completed in the early part of
1487, when he was twenty-three years old (he was born
nth November 1463). The dexter panel is occupied
by a figure of the Blessed Virgin standing in a room
between two windows. With her right hand she
supports the Infant Jesus seated on a cushion placed
on a table covered with an oriental carpet. He is
stretching out His hand to take an apple which His
Mother offers Him. On the other panel the donor is
represented kneeling at the end of the table, his

* For a full account of the Moreel family see Le Beffroi, ii, 179-196.
Bruges, 1865.

[St. John's Hospital, Bruges

THE BLESSED VIRGIN AND CHILD

1487

AUTHENTIC WORKS 45

hands joined in prayer, a book of hours, with a gold
clasp enamelled with his arms, lies open before him.
The windows above the transoms are filled with
stained glass, the lower portion open with the excep-
tion of that on the right, the shutters of which are
all but closed ; at the back of that nearest the Virgin
hangs a circular mirror in which the figures and
room are reflected. Through the window to the left
of Our Lady is seen a beautiful landscape in which a
peasant woman with a basket on her head is wending
her way along a road winding through a wood ;
farther away a man on a white horse, and in the
distance a town. Through that behind the donor,
is a view of a winding stream with swans, crossed
by a wooden bridge with a tower at each end ; on
the bridge are three men and a lady. One half of
the upper part of the window behind the donor is
filled with white glass in lozenges, the other with
stained glass, representing his patron Saint Martin
on horseback, dividing his cloak with a beggar.
Roundels with Saint George and Saint Christopher
adorn the window on the left of the Virgin ; in
that on her right are the donor's arms : an
escucheon bearing azure^ on an escallop argent an
armlet, and issuant from the chief three pallets or\
crest, on a helmet, wreathed and mantled azure
and argent^ a leopard natural^ collared or\ on a
label beneath is his motto IL Y A CAVSE, and
around four medallions with his device : a hand

46 HANS MEMLINC

issuing from the clouds and scattering gold among
the flowers.

This diptych is a remarkable example of Memlinc's
skill in dealing with light, which is here even, with
but little shadow, producing peculiar clearness and
imparting to this interior an impression of space.
The Virgin with her fair oval face and broad forehead
is quite one of his happiest creations, while the donor
is one of the most interesting portraits he ever pro-
duced ; the landscapes also are exquisitely finished.

The most famous of all Memlinc's works is the
reliquary of Saint Ursula in Saint John's Hospital, an
oblong shrine of carved oak with gabled ends con-
nected by a slanting roof with cresting, finials, and
angle buttresses with statuettes of saints, coloured and
gilt ; the sides, ends, and roof slopes adorned with
a series of miniatures ; the whole completed before the
2 1st of October 1489, on which day Giles De Bardemaker,
Bishop of Sarepta and Suffragan of Tournay, enclosed
therein some relics of the eleven thousand virgins
and other saints, together with a number of pious
souvenirs brought from the Holy Land, which, until
then, had been preserved in an old shrine, also of
painted wood.

Memlinc in his pictures tells the tale as it was
known to the people in his day — that is, as falsified
by the so-called visions of Saint Elisabeth of Schoenau
and the Blessed Herman Joseph of Steinfeld. The
panel at the head of the shrine represents the Blessed

[St. John's Hospital, Bruges

SHRINE OF ST. URSULA

1489

r

[St. John's Hospital, Bruges

PANEL OF THE SHRINE OF ST. URSULA
1489

[St. John's Hospital, Bruges

PANEL OF THE SHRINE OF ST. URSULA

1489

[St. Johns Hospital, Bruges

PANEL OF THE SHRINE OF ST. URSULA

1489

AUTHENTIC WORKS 47

Virgin standing in an apsidal chapel with the Divine
Child on her right arm, to whom she is offering an
apple; at her feet kneel two of the hospital nuns.
At the other end Saint Ursula is pictured in a similar
chapel, holding an arrow, and sheltering ten of her
companions grouped beneath her ample mantle. Each
side of the shrine is adorned with three miniatures,
separated from each other by slender columns ; these
support rounded arches intersected by flamboyant
tracery, which has been destroyed, with the exception
of the portions in the spandrels.

The first picture represents the arrival of the
pilgrims at Koln ; Ursula, whose train is supported
by two maidens, has just stepped out of the ship on
to the quay, and is being congratulated on her safe
arrival. The faces of the pilgrims beam with joy as
they turn to enter the town. In the vessel a number
of porters are busy with the baggage. In the back-
ground are represented some of the principal build-
ings of the city : the cathedral, the churches of Saint
Martin the Great, and Saint Mary Lyskirchen, and
the Bayenthurm. On the left, through the windows
of an upper chamber, we see Ursula sitting up in her
bed, her hands joined, and her eyes fixed on an angel
who appears to announce her future martyrdom.

The second panel represents the arrival of the
company at Basel. Here all is life and movement:
the sailors are busy furling the sails ; Ursula herself,
surrounded by a number of her companions, is landing ;

48 HANS MEMLINC

others patiently await their turn to disembark ; some
have already done so and are entering the city. On
the left, the pilgrim virgins are wending their way
towards the mountains.

Their arrival in Rome forms the subject of the
third miniature. In the foreground, the Pope, preceded
by a cross-bearer in dalmatic, and accompanied by
cardinals and other ecclesiastics, stands at the entrance
of a church, and, bending forward, blesses Ursula, who
kneels on the steps leading up to the portal. Behind
her are grouped a number of her companions, more
of whom are seen coming along the road, and through
the city gates. To the left a priest is baptising three
youths standing in a font ; another is anointing two
maidens whose godmother stands beside them. In the
background, an aged priest is shriving a pilgrim, while,
to the left, Saint Ursula herself is receiving Holy
Communion. This composition is the finest of the
series ; the grouping is admirable, and the colouring
exquisitely harmonious.

In the next picture the pilgrims are coming down
from the Alps on the right, towards Basel on the left,
where, outside the city gate, the Pope and his followers,
and the pilgrims are embarking. In the immediate
front, they are represented sitting closely packed to-
gether in the same vessel, preceded by another which
has rounded a headland, and followed by a boat, on
their way to Koln, their arrival at which, and martyr-
dom, occupy the two last panels. In the background

[St. Johns Hospital, Bruges
PANEL OF THE SHRINE OF ST. URSULA

[St. Johns Hospital, Bruges

PANEL OF THE SHRINE OF ST. URSULA
1489

67. Johns Hospital^ Bruges

ST. URSULA

(The end of the Shrine)

1489

AUTHENTIC WORKS 49

of the first of these are seen the Bayenthurm, the
churches of Saint Mary im Capitol, the Holy Apostles,
and Saint Martin. The vessels, side by side in the
foreground, are surrounded by archers and swordsmen
shooting, clubbing, and stabbing the pilgrims, one of
whom, falling back, is supported by Saint Ursula.
In the last of the series, Saint Ursula herself, accom-
panied by a maiden, and one of the Pope's suite, stands
undismayed before the leader of the Huns, and rejecting
his offer with calm ^dignity, awaits the arrow, which an
archer on the left is about to let fly at her heart.

The slanting roof of the shrine is adorned with six
medallions, four occupied by three - quarter length
figures of angels, one in alb and cope, playing the
violin, the others in albs, accompanying him on a
psaltery, a portable organ, and a lute. The two
larger medallions which occupy the middle of each
slope, represent the Coronation of Our Lady, and
Saint Ursula in glory, surrounded by her virgin troop,
with a pope and a bishop in the background.

All these pictures are wonderfully composed, and
show the perfection Memlinc had attained in the dis-
tribution of figures, which could not be more naturally
grouped than they are here. In none of his works are
the types better characterised, in none are the expres-
sions more varied. Accustomed as we are in modern
pictures to the realistic representation of violent action,
the sobriety shown in the treatment of the final scenes
may be considered faulty, yet, in suggesting, rather
D

50 HANS MEMLINC

than representing the Martyrdom of Saint Ursula,
Memlinc has given proof of his great delicacy of
Jeejing.

One of the wealthiest guilds in Bruges was that
of the merchant grocers, who carried on a very con-
siderable and lucrative trade in spices, drugs, foreign
fruits, and every description of grocery. Two of
Memlinc's employers, John Du Celier and William
Moreel, as has been already stated, belonged to this
guild. James, the younger brother of the master of
Saint John's Hospital, and two other members of the
Floreins family, John and Adrian, also belonged to
it; all three died in 1489-90, probably of the plague,
which, as we have seen, carried off all the brothers
attached to the hospital, except the master. James
Floreins had married a Spanish lady of the Quintana-
duena family, who bore him eighteen children. Some
time in the eighties Memlinc was commissioned
by them to paint a picture, which was at a later
period taken to Spain, whence it was carried off during
the French invasion by General d'Armagnac. It
is now in Paris, at the Louvre.

In the middle of the nave of a round-arched church,
the choir of which is shut off by a rood-screen of five
bays, the Blessed Virgin is seen seated on a stone
throne beneath a canopy with a cloth of honour of
rich brocade. Her feet rest on an oriental carpet, one
of the compartments of which bears the merchant's
mark employed by the Floreins family. In her left

AUTHENTIC WORKS - 51

hand she holds an open book, and with her right
supports the Infant Jesus seated on her lap. He turns
to the right to bless the donor, who is kneeling beside
his patron Saint James the Great. Behind the father
are grouped his six sons, the eldest a priest in furred
cassock and cambric surplice. On the opposite side
Saint Dominic, holding a processional cross, presents
the donor's widow, kneeling at the head of her twelve
daughters, the second of whom wears the habit of a
Dominican nun. Through the north transept porch,
adorned with statues of prophets, we get a view of
an open space, across which a lancer, on a white horse,
with a feather in his cap, is riding ; at its farther end
is a castle with a lofty saddleback tower, preceded
by a gatehouse and moat with a wooden bridge,
which a man on foot is about to cross ; to the right
are a damsel, a lady and gentleman, and a greyhound.
Through the south portal, adorned with statues of
the apostles, is another view of a farmhouse, with a
woman at its entrance, a dog on the path, and a couple
of cows, one grazing and the other lying down in a
meadow in front. The treatment of the architecture,
with regard to the figures, is masterly. The grouping
of so many figures, more especially of the daughters,
in a confined space, was no easy task, but Memlinc
has dealt with it very ably by bringing Saint Dominic
and the ladies nearer the throne, and placing the
younger children in the aisle, where they stand behind
their more devout elders, lifting up their heads to see

52 HANS MEMLINC

all they can. The portraits bear the impress of being
truthful studies from life. The necklaces worn by the
eldest and third daughter are beautifully represented.
The picture cannot have been completed before 1490,
as the lady is represented in a widow's dress.

The Museum at Pesth contains the centre of a very
remarkable triptych, the shutters of which are pre-
served in the Imperial Museum at Vienna. It is a
Calvary picture, composed of over thirty figures. To
the right of the cross a soldier on a white horse is
steadying and directing the lance with which Longinus
is piercing Our Lord's side. The centurion, and a
number of others, some on horseback, others on foot,
gaze on the scene with varied expression. In the
immediate foreground Saint Mary Magdalene, kneeling,
stretches out her arms in an agony of grief towards
the Redeemer. On the extreme right His blessed
Mother, overcome with sorrow, is supported by Saint
John and two holy women ; behind them a third,
kneeling with clasped hands, looks up at the Saviour.
At the opposite end three soldiers are casting dice
for His seamless robe. The background is formed by
a fine wide-spreading landscape, with a fortified city
on the right, and a river and trees on the left.

On the right shutter we see the procession going
up the road to Calvary. In front march the two
thieves, preceded and followed by guards ; in the
immediate foreground a brutal fellow, without even
deigning to cast a look behind him, is pulling at the

L&wy photo}

[ Vienna

THE BEARING OF THE CROSS

(Shutter of Triptych)

c. 1490

AUTHENTIC WORKS 53

rope with which Our Lord is girt, in order to make
Him advance more quickly. Bending beneath the
weight of the cross, He is on the point of falling,
though Simon of Cyrene, following Him step by step,
is endeavouring to ease His burden. Behind them,
under the arch of the city gate, are the centurion and
Longinus on horseback, conversing, and evidently com-
passionating Our Lord's sufferings.

On the opposite shutter Our Lord, surrounded by an
aureole of glory, is rising triumphant from the sepulchre
hewn in the side of a rock. On the right an angel is
removing the slab from the entrance ; to the left, two
soldiers fast asleep ; in the immediate foreground two
others, terrified and dazed by the glory of the risen
Saviour, are starting to their feet and seizing their
weapons. In the background, beyond the palisade
enclosing the garden, we see the three Marys coming
down the path towards the gate. In the distance are
hills and buildings, behind which the sun is about to
rise.

Compared with the altar-piece painted for William
Vrelant a dozen years earlier, this picture shows a
great advance as regards skill in composition and
grouping of figures. On the other hand, one cannot
help feeling that the cleverly drawn figure of the man
pulling at the rope, and the dog at his side teasing a
frog, tend to distract attention from Our Lord. The
shutters have been greatly injured by restorations.

Another Passion picture on a much larger scale,

54 HANS MEMLINC

indeed the largest of all the master's works, is still
preserved in a side chapel of the desecrated old cathedral
of Lubeck. The three scenes of the triptych are re-
produced with considerable variations on the interior
of this polyptych, and a number of others added,
recalling groups in the Stationers' altar-piece. Here
there is more space and air about the figures in the
Calvary picture; this is especially noticeable in the
grouping of the holy women. The Magdalene is also
drawn with greater freedom. The figures around the
cross are differently placed, and fresh ones introduced
— e.g. the three men behind the Marys, and another
standing near the centurion ; these are evidently por-
traits. Improvement is also observable in the position
of the impenitent old thief, and the grouping of the
dice throwers in the left foreground ; the varied expres-
sions of the latter are well rendered ; the anxiety of
the soldier who is about to throw ; the contented air of
another who is picking up the die of the unsuccessful
younger man between them, who, with his head rest-
ing on his left hand, is watching for the result.

The principal subject on the right shutter, of which
it occupies the lower half, is an almost exact repro-
duction of that at Vienna, with the addition of a figure
of the donor, Henry Greverade, a citizen of Lubeck,
who kneels in the immediate foreground on the extreme
right behind Our Lord. The upper half of the panel
is, however, altogether different; over the crenelated
wall of the city we get a view of its streets and

[Liibeck Cathedral

CALVARY

1491

AUTHENTIC WORKS 55

buildings, and, on the right, of the mountain beyond ;
on its slope is pictured the Agony in the Garden, with
the apostles asleep ; at its foot, the band of soldiers
and servants from the chief priests coming with lanterns,
torches, and weapons to take Christ, and, in their midst,
Judas betraying Him with a kiss. Peter, with his
sword, is cutting off Malchus' ear ; one of the young
followers of Our Lord, in linen vesture, is escaping from
his pursuer with the loss of his mantle. Within the
town Christ is being led bound into the house of
Caiaphas ; outside, Peter, questioned by a maid at the
door, is denying Our Lord ; in the background within,
three soldiers are warming themselves at a fire ; on a
tower near at hand is the cock crowing. Below, we
see Peter again, who, repentant, has come out and is
weeping bitterly. To the left, on the other side of
the street, Christ is being brought before Pilate, scourged,
mocked, and crowned with thorns ; farther to the left,
Pilate is washing his hands before the people, and,
finally, Christ bound is being led forth. These groups
are crowded together and less well separated than on
the Stationers' altar-piece.

On the other shutter, Nicodemus and Joseph of
Arimathea are carrying the dead Christ wrapped in a
winding sheet into the sepulchre hewn in the side of
a rock in the immediate front on the left. His Mother
and the Magdalene follow weeping. Just above this
scene, and far too close to it, is depicted another, the
Resurrection. Christ, his head surrounded with rays of

56 HANS MEMLINC

light, is rising triumphant, whilst the soldier guards
sleep around ; an angel supports the slab which
closed the entrance and prevents it from falling. In
the landscape on the right, Christ appears to Saint
Mary Magdalene and blesses her. A little farther off
the three Marys are coming down the road bearing
spices. To the left, we see Our Lord appearing to the
apostles gathered together in a chamber ; and beyond
this, conversing with two disciples on the way to
Emmaus, and farther away still, making Himself
known to them at table. To the right, illumined by
the rising sun, is represented the Sea of Tiberias with
the apostles fishing in a ship, and Our Lord appearing
to them on the shore. Peter, with his coat cast about
him, is wading through the water to Him. Finally,
on a mountain top to the right, the apostles, kneeling,
with outstretched arms, gaze on their Master going
up to heaven and disappearing through the clouds.

On the exterior of these shutters are full-length
figures of Saint John the Baptist and Saint Jerome,
and on the interior of two outer shutters, Saints
Blaise and Giles, the four patrons in whose honour
the altar was dedicated. They are represented in a
cloister with glazed windows. On the exterior of the
outer shutters are grisaille figures of the archangel
Gabriel and the Blessed Virgin in round-headed niches.
These are badly drawn and feebly executed — notably
the hands and feet — and are most certainly the work
of another hand.

AUTHENTIC WORKS 57

In carrying out the painting of the subjects which
adorn the interior, Memlinc appears to have left far
more than usual to his assistants. The execution is
very unequal, some portions being, in accordance with
his usual practice, thinly painted, whilst in others the
colour is laid on with a very full brush ; the delicate
treatment and transparency which characterise the
master's works are also wanting. As the picture has
apparently never undergone restoration, we can only
conclude that for some reason or other he allowed his
assistants too large a part in the execution of the work.
The unpleasant incident of the dog and frog on the
shutter at Vienna is here repeated, and another, in
even worse taste, introduced in the central picture,
where, just below the good thief, a buffoon in parti-
coloured clothing is perched on horseback with an ape
in the saddle behind him holding a fruit which a
grinning young rascal is trying to take from him.

Henry Greverade, for whom this altar-piece was
painted, and who is represented kneeling on the interior
of the right shutter, was a wealthy merchant and
banker of Lubeck, who, when on his way as a pilgrim
to Rome in 1500, died suddenly at Viterbo and was
buried in the Holy City. He and his elder brother,
Canon Adolphus, had founded the chapel of Our Lady
in the north aisle in 1493. The altar in this chapel
was dedicated in honour of the Holy Cross, the Blessed
Virgin, and Saints John the Baptist, Jerome, Blaise,
and Giles. The endowment of the altar was com-

58 HANS MEMLINC

pleted in 1504 by the executors of the Canon, who
died at Louvain in 1501. I am strongly inclined to
believe that the figures of the four saints and of the
angel and Virgin were not added until after Henry's
death.

Hanfstcingl photo] [National Gallery, London

THE BLESSED VIRGIN AND CHILD, WITH ST. GEORGE AND THE DONOR

CHAPTER III

UNAUTHENTICATED WORKS

THE pictures described in chronological order in
the previous chapter illustrate the development of
Memlinc's talent during a quarter of a century. Their
authenticity is established beyond dispute. Of those
with which I am now about to deal some are genuine
but unauthenticated works of the master to which no
date can be assigned with certainty, but only estimated
by careful comparison with dated examples ; others
are contemporary pictures, the ascription of which to
him appears to me doubtful, in some cases quite
contrary to evidence.

The National Gallery possesses a genuine work
which, however, has been injured by rubbing. It dates
in all probability from about 1475, and represents the
Blessed Virgin and Child enthroned, with an angel
playing on a lute on her right, and a kneeling donor
protected by Saint George on her left. The group is
represented in a portico opening on to a garden.
Mary is seated beneath a canopy furnished with a
cloth of honour. With her right hand she supports
the Child seated on her lap. He leans forward, and,
smiling, extends one hand towards the angel, while
59

60 HANS MEMLINC

the other rests on the leaves of the book His Mother
is reading. The donor, habited in black, carries a
dagger and purse at his side. His hat, the scarf of
which is passed through his belt, has fallen, and lies
on the oriental carpet spread beneath the Virgin's feet.
His patron stands behind him, clad in steel armour,
with a gorget and shirt of chain mail. He grasps a lance
with a white banner charged with a blood-red cross, and
in his left hand holds his hat, which is adorned with a
feather ; on his breast is a crucifix suspended from his
neck by a gold chain ; the dragon, pierced through the
throat, lies dying at his feet. The garden is gay with
irises, lilies, and other flowering plants ; at the farther
end, to the right, a man is going out through the gateway,
the door of which he is about to close. Beyond the
wall the eye rests on a landscape, the chief feature of
which is a river with a large vessel and three boats ;
on the right is a house with a round tower, and, on
the left, a castle with a crenelated keep, along the
rampart of which a woman is walking. Farther away
the river bank is wooded.

A more important picture than this, and probably
of a slightly later date, purchased on the Continent by
Sir Joshua Reynolds, is now in the possession of the
well-known architect, Mr. G. F. Bodley. Though
rubbed and rather dirty, it has happily escaped the
cleaner's hands. The composition closely resembles
that in the centre of the altar-piece of Saint John's
Hospital. Here, however, the scene is laid in a garden

Casivall Smith photo\

[Mr. G. F. Bod ley, A.R.A.

ALTAR-PIECE

UNAUTHENTICATED WORKS 61

enclosed by a low wall, and the Virgin's throne, with
its canopy and cloth of honour, placed beneath a vine-
covered arcade of trellis work, flowering plants growing
all around. The pose of both Mother and Child is
different — she supports Him with both hands, and her
dress is simpler. The angels here, too, have wings, and
the one on the left, in alb and dalmatic, is playing the
harp. The figures of Saints Katherine and Barbara are
very similar, but the pose of the former's arm, extended
to receive the ring, is rather happier. Behind her
kneels the donor, in a black dress, telling his beads.
The tower behind Saint Barbara is severer in style,
the background altogether different ; on the extreme
right is a hill crowned by a clump of trees ; to the left
of this, a crenelated wall and a gateway by which a
man in crimson and blue, on a white horse, is entering
the enclosed demesne ; farther to the left is another
man, who, skirting the wall, is approaching the en-
trance ; beyond him, and near the middle, is a winding
stream spanned by a bridge which a man and woman
are crossing. On the left are a round tower and a
hill with trees. Throughout this work reigns the
same calm and peaceful atmosphere which characterises
all Memlinc's early pictures. The whole scene, repre-
sented with perfect simplicity, is undoubtedly true to
nature.

A small Epiphany picture, now at Copenhagen,
dates probably from about 1479. It was found in
a country house in Jutland, and probably belonged

62 HANS MEMLINC

originally to one of the Cistercian houses, which
were in constant relation with the monks of Ter
Doest at Lisseweghe near Bruges. On the right is a
half-ruined stable, in front of which the Blessed Virgin
kneels, adoring the Infant Saviour lying in the manger
with the ox and ass at His side. He holds out His
tiny arms towards her, smiling. Behind we see Joseph
coming forward, hat and staff in hand, and on the left
the three Wise Men, on foot, drawing near bearing
their gifts ; beyond them, in the background, their
suite, mounted on horses and dromedaries, have halted.
In the immediate front a hound, turning round, watches
the approaching strangers. This panel, which had
suffered by rubbing, has been further injured by cleaning
and restoration.

The shutters of an important triptych, of which the
centre is lost and the scene represented on it forgotten,
were in the collection of Prince Lucien Bonaparte,
and subsequently in that of William II., King of
Holland. These shutters had been previously sawn
in two in the thickness. Two of them represented
Saints Stephen and Christopher, with scenes from
their legends in the landscape background ; at the
sale in 1850, they were bought in at 4750 florins. The
other two were purchased in 1851 by the Louvre for
the sum of 11,728 francs = £469, 2s. On the dexter
panel Saint John the Baptist is seen standing in the
front of rising ground, clothed in a camel's skin, girt
with a scarf. In the background is a river winding

From an old private photo] [Copenhagen MUSCUJ

EPIPHANY PICTURE

UNAUTHENTICATED WORKS 63

round the base of a lofty hill, at the foot of which are
represented the Baptism of Christ, and John pointing
out Christ to two disciples. The hill is crowned by a
palace, where the daughter of Herodias is dancing in the
banqueting hall ; in the courtyard Saint John is be-
headed. The opposite shutter represents Saint Mary
Magdalene carrying a pot of ointment. In the back-
ground she is wiping Our Lord's feet in the house
of Simon, witnessing the raising of Lazarus, and
kneeling at the feet of the risen Christ. Farther away
is a lofty mountain with a cave in the side, above the
entrance to which two angels are bearing the saint to
Heaven. The foreground of both panels is covered with
flowering plants. These are exquisite pictures, most
delicately finished.

The National Gallery also contains the shutters of a
triptych, the centre of which is lost. On the interior
are figures of Saint John the Baptist and Saint
Laurence standing on the upper step of the entrance
to a portico. Through the window openings at the back,
the eye rests on a well-wooded hilly landscape. On
the reverse of one of these panels is an escucheon
bearing gules^ two chevrons argent between three
pairs of compasses ; crest, on a helmet wreathed and
mantled gules and argent, an arm embowed vested
per pale gules and argent^ in the hand, a pair of
compasses. Around this escucheon, and on the opposite
panel, are painted four cranes with bright red crests.
The figure of Saint Laurence is remarkably fine.

64 HANS MEMLINC

The Hospital of Saint John at Bruges possesses a
small triptych, unfortunately much injured by cleaning
and restoration, painted for Adrian Reyns, who entered
the community in 1479, and died in 1490. In the
centre the Virgin Mother kneels with clasped hands,
looking upon her Son's body lying on a winding-sheet
before her, the head supported by Saint John, who is
tenderly removing the crown of thorns. To the left, a
little farther from the front, is the Magdalene, wringing
her hands in bitter grief. At a little distance behind
her, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus are busy pre-
paring the sepulchre at the foot of some rocks within
an enclosure. On the ground close by are a stoneware
jug and a brass basin. On the interior of the right
shutter the donor is kneeling with joined hands, pro-
tected by Saint Adrian, who stands behind him, clad
in a suit of plate armour, with a mantle and cap ; he
holds the instruments of his martyrdom, a sword, in his
right hand, and an anvil in his left. On the opposite
panel stands Saint Barbara, bearing the model of a
tower in her right hand. On the reverse are the bearded
Saint Wilgefortis or Uncumber, holding a Calvary
cross, and Saint Mary of Egypt, with her three loaves.
On the frame are the initials A. R., and the date 1480.
I have some doubt as to this work being by Memlinc.
The tone is reddish, and the landscape wants the fine
qualities which distinguish the pictures painted by
him at this time. The pose of the Magdalene is also
unusually theatrical.

UNAUTHENTICATED WORKS 65

An undated panel in the Doria Palace at Rome
represents the same subject as the central picture in
the triptych just described, but the figures, more skil-
fully arranged, are painted with far greater delicacy
and feeling. The compassionate love with which Mary
embraces her Son's body, and presses it to her bosom,
is most expressively rendered. Saint John, with his
right hand, supports the body of his Divine Master,
and looks tenderly on the bereaved Mother committed
to his care. The Magdalene, a little to the rear, is trying
to dry her tears ; beyond her, on the extreme left,
kneels the donor, a grave and reverent-looking man,
absorbed in prayer. Between the last two figures we
get a view of the open sepulchre prepared in the side
of a rock. On the mount to the right are the crosses
with the two thieves, and a ladder against that from
which the Saviour has been taken down. Beyond, a
far-stretching landscape, the view of which, on the left,
is shut out by a city enclosed by battlemented walls
with square towers, and by a mountain, the slope of
which is covered with trees.

A panel in the Royal Gallery at Berlin represents
Our Lady supporting with her right hand the Child
Jesus, who is seated, with a cushion under Him, on a
carpet- covered parapet between two columns. He is
trying, with His left hand, to grasp an apple which she
offers Him. Behind them are a couple of windows
looking out on a landscape with a wood, which a man
on horseback, on the right, is about to enter ; on the
E

66 HANS MEMLINC

left are cattle in a meadow enclosed by a palisade, on
the road in front of which a man is advancing towards
the middle. In the distance is seen the lofty keep of
a castle towering high above the trees.

In the Kann Collection at Paris are two shutters of
a triptych. On the dexter panel an aged widow lady,
her hands joined in prayer, kneels beside her patroness
Saint Anne, whose right hand rests on her shoulder.
On the opposite panel a young man, doubtless her son,
also kneeling, holds an open book, which he is reading
attentively ; he wears a dark robe trimmed with fur,
and a tight-fitting under-dress, at the neck of which,
as also through the openings in the slashed sleeves, his
fine linen shirt is shown. His patron, Saint William of
Maleval, stands behind him clad in steel armour, over
which he wears the habit of the order he founded.
He holds a lance and banner in his left hand. The
portraits are dignified, and full of expression ; Saint
Anne is a pleasing figure, but the hermit saint is some-
what wanting in character. The landscape background
is not as happy as usual, consisting of broken country
with rocky, grass-grown, humpy hills, intersected by
narrow valleys and winding roads, with trees scattered
here and there. On the extreme right is a manor,
with figures crossing the bridge over the moat, in which
are swans ; on the heights, which shut out the horizon,
rises a lordly castle. The sky, and also in part the
figures, have suffered badly at the hand of the restorer.

The Gallery at the Hague possesses a bust portrait

UNAUTHENTICATED WORKS 67

of a beardless young man, with a copious quantity
of dark curly hair. Turned slightly towards the right,
his hands — of which the upper part of the fingers only
is seen — are joined in prayer, a proof that this is only
half of a diptych. He wears over a close-fitting dress a
fur-lined robe, both open in front, showing a fine plaited
shirt. A jewelled cross hangs from his neck by a
gold chain, and a couple of rings adorn the fourth
finger of his left hand. The background is formed
by a slightly undulating landscape, with trees on the
left, and buildings in the distance on the right. This
portrait bears the truthful impress of nature ; the head
is strongly modelled, and the somewhat hard face, full
of life, painted with breadth of handling, prove this
to be an early work.

Another early portrait is in the Berlin Gallery, the
bust of a man about seventy years of age, turned to
the left, his hand resting on a parapet. He is clad
in a black cloth robe, trimmed with fur, and wears a
black cap which partly covers his ear. In the back-
ground are meadows and trees ; on the left, a castle
with a crenelated bridge ; a cavalier is watering his
horse at the stream, which flows past it into a wide
river.

In the Corsini Palace at Florence is a pleasing
bust-portrait of a young man, the head turned slightly
to the left ; he wears a dark dress, with white linen
at the neck, and rests his left hand on a parapet.
He has curly hair, which, however, is kept off his

68 HANS MEMLINC

forehead by a cap. The background is formed
by a well-wooded, hilly landscape with meadows,
and a river, with a couple of swans, on the left ;
on the right, a winding road, with a man on a white
horse.

The Gallery at Brussels contains an interesting bust-
portrait of a man, said to be Nicolas Strozzi, turned
slightly to the left, with his right hand resting on a
parapet. He is clad in a fur-lined robe, and wears a
cap over an abundance of curly hair, which completely
covers his forehead. The landscape background is of
less interest than usual.

Another bust-portrait in the Staedel Institute at
Frankfort belongs to a later period, probably about
1485. It represents a man seen in three-quarters,
nearly to the waist, his face turned slightly to the
right, standing at a window opening, his hands resting
on the sill. He wears a black dress edged with brown
fur. He is closely shaven, and his hair, cut straight,
extends just beyond the edge of his conical crimson
cap ; he has a ring on the fourth and another on the
little finger of his left hand. Landscape background ;
to the right, rising ground with trees and buildings,
with towers in the distance ; on the left, more trees,
amidst which are seen a cottage, and a man playing
with a dog.

Brogi photo}

\UjfiziGallery, Florence

PORTRAIT OF A MAN

CHAPTER IV

OTHER ATTRIBUTED WORKS

AMONG many other pictures attributed to Memlinc
there are a certain number which it will be well to
notice here.

The earliest of these is a small diptych, formerly
in the possession of the Rev. J. Fuller Russell, now in
the Conde" Museum at Chantilly, ascribed to Memlinc
by Dr. Waagen in 1857, and by Crowe and Cavalcaselle
in 1872 to a pupil of that master, notwithstanding
that it must have been painted about 1460. In 1867
I had the diptych in my care at Bruges, and took it
to Saint John's Hospital, where I compared it carefully
with the authentic works there preserved, and became
convinced that it was the work of some other master,
being less skilfully designed, and wanting the trans-
parency and delicate finish which characterise Memlinc's
works.* The late Sir W. Boxall, who was with me
at the time, fully shared my opinion. No doubt this
diptych was attributed to Memlinc on account of the
striking resemblance of some of the groups to those
in the Calvary pictures at Pesth and Lubeck ; but this
by itself is no proof of common authorship, as painters,

* See Le Beffroi, iii, 347. Bruges, 1870.
69

70 HANS MEMLINC

sculptors, and chroniclers in those days constantly
borrowed from one another.

The earliest of the portraits, which I have not yet
described, was formerly at Stafford House, and is now
in the Conde" Museum at Chantilly. It is the bust of
a man of between thirty-five and forty years of age,
painted on a plain green background, the face turned
to the right, seen in three-quarters, his right hand
resting on a parapet facing the full light. He wears
a dark purplish-brown dress, open in front, with black
velvet facings, laced at the neck, over a shirt of fine
linen. His head-gear is a black cylindrical hat, with a
turned-up brim. To a gold neck-chain is suspended
the Golden Fleece, ensigned with the steel and flint,
surrounded by flames. The heraldic emblems, with the
motto " Nul ne si frotte " on the back of the panel,
prove this to be the portrait of Anthony, natural son
of Philip, Duke of Burgundy, and Jeanne de Presles,
born in 1421, and elected knight of the order at the
chapter held at the Hague in 1456. The picture must
have been painted between that year and 1461. It
is a masterly work, but I do not see sufficient grounds
for its attribution to Memlinc.

Another portrait of a young man, formerly in the
Felix collection at Leipzig, and now in the possession
of Mr. G. F. Salting, has, as far as its date is con-
cerned, better grounds for its ascription to Memlinc.
It is a half-length figure of a good-looking young
man, with hazel eyes, and an abundance of light

OTHER ATTRIBUTED WORKS 71

brown hair, turned to the left, his hands devoutly joined
as he kneels before a bench on which a prayer-book
lies open. He wears, over a light crimson close-fitting
dress, a brown tunic laced across the chest, and with
sleeves slashed at the shoulders, showing his white
linen shirt. He wears rings on the thumb and third
finger of his right hand, and a jewelled cross sus-
pended to a gold neck-chain. This is no doubt the
dexter panel of a diptych, the other leaf of which
is lost.

The Blessed Virgin and Child, with a donor pro-
tected by Saint Anthony, in the Liechtenstein Gallery
at Vienna, attributed to Memlinc by Wauters and
Kammerer, is the work of a contemporary. In no
authentic painting by the master is the Infant Christ
represented clothed. The date 1472, which this panel
bears, has a suspicious appearance.

The most important by far of the works falsely
attributed to Memlinc is the celebrated triptych of the
Last Judgment at Danzig, which was completed in
1472. There is every reason for rejecting its attri-
bution to him. The general character of the composi-
tions, both on the interior and exterior, the types of
the figures, and the style of the architecture, are not
only unlike anything he ever drew, but the mere fact
that the designing and execution of this work must
have occupied its author at the very least, from ten to
twelve years, is a sufficient proof that it cannot be
by him.

72 HANS MEMLINC

On the interior alone there are more than one
hundred and fifty figures, the greater number of which
are evidently studies from life, most carefully and
correctly drawn, with a wonderful variety of expres-
sion, and in every detail there is an astounding
perfection of execution. In a register of the church
at Danzig, of the year 1616, the picture is said to
have been painted in Brabant by John and George
van Eichen. George von Fiirst, in his Travels,*
mentions it as a work by James and George van
Eichen, and says that it took them forty years to
paint it. In 1807 tne French carried it off. In the
catalogue of the paintings exhibited at Paris, drawn
up by Vivant Denon, it figures as a work by Albert
van Ou water. In 1815 it was recovered and brought
back to Germany, and exhibited for a time at Berlin.
In the catalogue drawn up by Schadow it was, owing
to his having misunderstood a passage in Reinhold
Curicken's description of Danzig, attributed to Michael
Wohlgemuth. Hirt discovered so great an analogy
between this picture and the Portinari triptych at
Florence, that, in an article on the exhibition,! he
assigned it without hesitation to Hugh van der Goes,
the painter of that work. In 1818 Frederick Forster
declared it to have been painted by the Van Eycks
in 1367 | — that is, before John was born, and while

* Curieuse Reisen durch Europa, p. 22. Sorau, 1739.
f Ueber die diesjahrige Kunstaustellung auf dcr Akademie zu Berlin.
Berlin, 1815.

$ F. FOERSTER. Die Sdngerfahrt, pp. ii-vi. Berlin, 1818.

OTHER ATTRIBUTED WORKS 73

Hubert was still an infant. In 1821 Professor Biisching
discovered what he took to be the monogram of
the Van Eycks, and in an outburst of enthusiasm
declared that there was no longer any doubt that the
triptych was painted by them.* Johanna Schopenhauer,
whose love of art had been inspired by this picture,
and who had studied the paintings on the shutters
of the Ghent altar-piece at Berlin, and the pictures
in the Boisserde Collection, declared that she had
no doubt that the triptych was by the Van Eycks,
and anterior in date to the " Adoration of the Lamb." t
Waagen having, as he says, seen it at Paris, side by side
with the " Adoration of the Lamb," and compared the
two works diligently, acquired the conviction that the
Danzig picture was painted by John van Eyck, with
the help of Hugh van der Goes, and that the date
CCCLXVII. on the gravestone proved that John was still
alive in 146/4 In 1837 Kugler considered it to be by
John van Eyck, or perhaps by a distinguished follower. §
In 1841 Passavant assigned it to Albert van Ouwater|| ;
Professor Schulz combated this view,U which, however,

* Das Danziger Bild und sein Malerzeichen, in Kunstblatt, 1821,
No. 55, p. 218.

t J. II. SCHOPENHAUER. Johann van Eyck und seine Nachfolger, p. 97.
Frankfurt am Main, 1822.

% G. F. WAAGEN. Ueber Hubert und Johann van Eyck, pp. 249 and
252. Breslau, 1822.

§ F. T. KUGLER. Handbuch der Geschichte der Malerei, p. 57.
Berlin, 1837.

|| Beitrdge zur Kenntniss der altnicdcrlandischen Malerschulen in
Kunstblatt, xxii, 39. Stuttgart, 1841.

IT Ueber Alterthums Gegenstande der bildende Kunst in Danzig. 1841.

74 HANS MEMLINC

Kugler adopted in 1842.* In 1843 Hotho, in along
dissertation, tried to prove it to be by Memlinc. f His
opinion seems to have been pretty generally accepted,
amongst others by Burckhardt in his revised edition
ofKugler's Handbook. In 1859 L. van Ledebur wrote
a pamphlet, in which he treats of the picture from
every 'point of view; maintains the authorship of the
Van Eycks, and considers the date CCCLXVII. to stand
for 1367, and to be an allusion to the great mortality
which reigned in the Low Countries during that year, t
In 1860 Waagen, forgetting his conviction based on
personal examination, adopted Hotho's view and declared
the triptych to be not only the most important work
by Memlinc that has come down to our time, but also
one of the masterpieces of the whole school, being far
richer and better composed than the picture of the
same subject by Roger de la Pasture at Beaune, though
that master's influence is still very perceptible. § In
the German edition he qualified this by adding that he
recognised in the figures the influence of Dirk Bouts,
whom he calls Stuerbout. || In 1864 Ernst Foerster,
who had carefully studied both this and the Beaune
picture, declared both to be by Roger. U In 1866

* Handbuch, p. 746. Berlin, 1842.

t Geschichte der Deutsche und Niederldndische Malerei, ii, 122-145.
Berlin, 1843.

% Einiges iiber das beriihmte Altarbild : das Jiingste Gericht. Berlin,
1859.

§ Handbook of Painting, i, 97-99. London, 1860.

|| Handbuch der Geschichte der Malerei> i, 118. Stuttgart, 1862.

IT Denkmale Deutscher Kunst, IX, iii, 12. Leipzig, 1864.

OTHER ATTRIBUTED WORKS 75

Michiels maintained it to be the work of John van
Eyck. * And Kammerer quite recently declares that
no one who is acquainted with Memlinc's authentic
works, can possibly doubt that this picture is the work
of his hand, t

I have given the account of these various attributions
by distinguished connoisseurs in order to show how
little reliance can be placed on the most decided
opinions of experts, and the reserve with which they
should be accepted in the absence of documentary
evidence ; and I can only again say that there is every
reason for holding that the real author of this very
fine work has not yet been discovered.

A triptych, representing the Deposition with Saint
James and Saint Christopher, formerly belonging to
the Rev. J. Heath of Liphook, and now to Herr Von
Kaufmann of Berlin, is the work of a contemporary
but less delicate painter, probably a Brabanter, who
was also influenced by Roger de la Pasture and Dirk
Bouts.

The Gallery at Vienna possesses a triptych which
has for its central subject the Blessed Virgin and Child
enthroned between an angel and a kneeling donor,
with full - length figures of Saint John Baptist and
Saint John the Evangelist on the interior, and of Adam
and Eve on the exterior of the shutters. The Uffizi
Gallery at Florence contains a panel with a very similar

* Histoire de la Peinture Flamande, ii, 173. Paris, 1866.
f Memling) p. 54. Leipzig, 1899.

;6 HANS MEMLINC

Madonna between two angels, a replica of which is
at Woerlitz, and another, still weaker, in the possession
of the Duke of Westminster. In the three last, and
in the central panel of the first, the figures are
enclosed by architecture of a debased character
with sculptured groups, figures of nude children and
garlands, which show them to date at earliest from
the end of the century. The figures of the Blessed
Virgin and Child and the angels in these works,
as also the donor and the two Saints John in
the Vienna triptych, closely resemble Memlinc's
pictures in Saint John's Hospital, but the execution
is different, and I believe that all are the work of
a pupil. The same remark applies to a panel in
the Brussels Museum, representing archers shooting
at Saint Sebastian, and to a triptych in the Louvre,
on one of the shutters of which this composition is
repeated.

An " Annunciation " in the collection of Prince
Radziwill at Berlin is a very original composition of
delicate execution, but so unlike Memlinc, that I am
astonished that so many writers have followed Waagen's
lead in attributing it to him.

The three large panels from the Benedictine Abbey
of Santa Maria la Real at Najera, now in the Museum
at Antwerp, are also attributed to Memlinc. I saw
these at Paris when in the hands of Mr. Stein, and
have examined them again quite recently. The figures
of the angels have undoubtedly been inspired by

Brog-iphoto\ [ Uffizi Gallery, Florence

THE BLESSED VIRGIN AND CHILD, WITH ANGELS

OTHER ATTRIBUTED WORKS 77

Memlinc's works — the four best are enlargements of
those on the roof of the shrine of Saint Ursula — but
they are weaker and more feminine in appearance.
The figure of the Eternal is quite unlike Memlinc ;
moreover, in no authentic work of his do we find gold
employed as a background.

A triptych found by Don Jos£ de Madrazo in a
castle built by Charles V. near Aranjuez, now in the
Prado Museum, is probably the work of a contemporary
who has closely imitated the triptych painted by
Memlinc for Brother John Floreins. The principal
figures are indeed almost identical ; others, as also
the accessories, differ considerably; some, the angels
adoring the Infant Jesus for instance, are very inferior.
The colour too is poor, but the picture has suffered
considerably from over-cleaning and restoration, and
as I only saw it in a bad light I may possibly be
mistaken.

No doubt the works of pupils and imitators will
continue for a long time to be taken for those of the
few masters who have been rescued from oblivion,
and it requires a very practised eye to be able, in
the absence of documentary evidence, to affirm that
any picture is the work of the master to whom it is
attributed. It is not so very long since that all such
works were attributed to Diirer, Van Eyck, or Gossart ;
now, thanks to the patient researches of a few men,
the number of masters on whom they can be fathered
is much larger, but attributions made even recently

I

78 HANS MEMLINC

are often quite as ill-founded as those of a century
ago. Within the last few weeks I have found positive
proof that a picture formerly attributed to Memlinc,
and more recently to Roger de la Pasture, was not
executed until after 1500.

CHAPTER V
CHARACTERISTICS

TAKEN collectively, the works produced by the
masters of the Early Netherlandish school compare
favourably with those of other countries. Hubert van
Eyck's masterpiece, " The Adoration of the Lamb,"
has never been surpassed. It strikes one by its
grandeur and splendour, by the wonderful talent with
which the different groups have been arranged and
balanced, so that the more one examines the picture
in detail, the more one is impressed with the feeling
that it would be impossible to suggest the slightest
improvement in the relative position of the different
figures, or even of the accessories, which seem to have
fallen quite naturally into the places they occupy.
Though Memlinc never produced anything equal to this
marvellous work, he certainly proved himself superior
to all the other painters of the school. John van Eyck,
it is true, surpassed him in technical execution, in the
modelling of his figures, and the consummate skill
with which he rendered the minutest details, but in
the treatment of religious subjects there is a whole
world between them. John van Eyck saw with his
eyes, Memlinc with his soul. John studied, copied,
79

8o HANS MEMLINC

and reproduced with marvellous accuracy the models
he had before him. Memlinc, doubtless, studied and
copied, but he did more ; he meditated and reflected ;
his whole soul went into his work, and he idealised
and glorified, and, so to say, transfigured the models
which he had before him. Instead of being constantly
on the lookout for little peculiarities in the persons
that chanced to fall in his way, by the reproduction
of which he could prove • his masterly powers, Memlinc
picked out those which he found most lovable, most
remarkable for their delicacy or nobility, and created
types such as had never been seen before ; to these
he gave life and reality. His pictures show, in the
manner of their conception and idealisation, a real
progress ; and many of the subjects he represented
have never been so delicately and delightfully expressed
by any other painter, with the exception, perhaps, of
Fra Angelico. As compared with the other masters of
the Netherlandish school, he is the most poetical and
the most musical ; many of his pictures are perfect
little gems.

Memlinc's figures of Our Lady, by their exquisite
purity, tenderness, and mild, intellectual majesty, alone
realise the character of the Virgin Mother as revealed
to us in the Gospel ; indeed, I know no painter of any
school who surpasses him, whether he represents her
bending in loving adoration of the new-born Saviour,
or as sitting in calm, dignified humility, supporting His
tender limbs whilst He receives the homage of the Wise

CHARACTERISTICS 81

Men, or, again, as enthroned in majesty surrounded by
angels and saints. Roger de la Pasture's Madonnas
are simply affectionate and maternal, whilst John van
Eyck's are always worldly, and at times even repulsive,
as in the Van der Pale altar-piece in the Museum of
the Academy at Bruges. The Infant Christ, to whom
John van Eyck generally imparted a disagreeable look
of old age, and Roger a thin and ungraceful form, has
in Memlinc's pictures a nobler and happier cast of
countenance, with an intelligent forehead and fine eyes,
inferior, however, even in the altar-piece of Saint John's
Hospital and the triptych painted for Brother John
Floreins, to the type conceived by Gerard David. John
van Eyck's saints are mere reproductions of the model,
who is seldom well chosen ; while Roger's, though varied
in expression, are rarely noble, and often, when he
sought to express excessive grief, unnatural, by their
exaggerated action. Dirk Bouts' saints are rigid and
deficient in expression ; Gerard David's, graceful and
poetical, but often untrue to their character. Memlinc
appears to have studied attentively, and meditated
deeply, both the Gospels and the lives of the saints,
for the expression of his personages is in all cases
true to history. His figures of the austere Baptist, of
the Evangelist, whether as a patron protecting a client,
or as seated gazing on the Apocalyptic vision, of Saint
Christopher looking up at his wondrous burden, of
placid abbots and meditative hermits such as Saint
Maur and Saint Giles, or of female saints such as Saint
F

82 HANS MEMLINC

Veronica and Saint Katherine, are typical figures, of
exquisite beauty, which for a long time were copied
by painters and miniaturists. His angels, again, so full
of grace, and with such winning expression of features,
whether gazing in tender love on the Divine Babe, or
with joyous countenance making sweet melody with
harp or organ, have seldom been surpassed. Adherence
to truth and delicate sweetness of sentiment are indeed
characteristic features of Memlinc's pictures, which
are so full of harmony and tender, poetical feeling,
that he may fairly be styled the musical painter of
the school.

In aiming at perfect symmetry in some of his works
(Donne triptych ; altar-piece of Saint John's Hospital,
1479 ; Moreel triptych, 1484) his figures are con-
strained. The grouping on the shutters of the last
picture, and on that executed for James Floreins, has
a certain stiffness inevitable owing to the number of
persons that had to be portrayed in a very limited
space. It would, however, be difficult to group figures
more naturally than they are in by far the greater
number of his pictures. Take for instance those in
the triptych painted for Brother John Floreins (1479),
the Du Celier diptych (c. 1475 ?), and the panels of the
shrine of Saint Ursula, which it would be hardly
possible to surpass in this respect. His narrative
pictures (altar-piece of the Stationers, 1478, and of the
Tanners, 1480) are also quite free from reproach on
this score. To modern eyes these last may seem to

CHARACTERISTICS 83

lack unity, but although at first sight there is an
apparent want of order, they will be found on closer
examination to present a moral harmony of the highest
perfection. This is especially the case in the last-
mentioned work, in which each little scene is so
exquisitely finished that it forms a perfect picture in
itself, whilst the whole may well be termed an impres-
sive poem replete with harmony and grace. These
two pictures stand quite by themselves ; but in most
of his works Memlinc has introduced incidents in the
lives of the principal figures into the landscapes which
almost invariably form the background of his pictures,
arid when the subject was only the portrait of a
contemporary, he enlivened the landscape with figures
and animals from every-day life. Doubtless, in his
early days he had studied with observant eye the
undulating country of his native land, watered by many
a fair stream, the poetry of which he understood and
interpreted admirably with his brush. He seems to
the very end of his life to have retained his love of
the open air, of lakes, and running streams ; these he
introduced wherever possible into his pictures, enliven-
ing them with boats and swans. He was, as Sir
Martin Conway has well remarked, "the first painter
who drew the form of a river bank correctly " — a
faculty doubtless acquired in early life. His land-
scape backgrounds are always subservient to the
figures, never obtruding themselves to the detriment
of the subject, as in many later paintings, the back-

84 HANS MEMLINC

grounds of which were supplied by landscape specialists
such as Patenir and Bles.

Of the many landscapes painted by Memlinc, none
are finer than those in the two earliest of his pictures
that have come down to us : the Donne triptych and
the Spinelli portrait, and that on the inner face of the
dexter shutter of the altar-piece of Saint John's
Hospital.

Memlinc, when he had to represent evil passions,
was unsuccessful. The executioner who has just
beheaded Saint John Baptist, the soldiers who are
slaying Saint Ursula's companions, and their leader
who is looking on, are passionless figures, and, as a
consequence, these scenes, the latter especially, have
an air of unreality. Evidently the representation of
scenes of cruelty was repugnant to his feelings, and as
far as possible he avoided them, but when it was neces-
sary to include them in a picture he gave them as little
prominence as possible. However, in his latest works,
the Calvary pictures in Buda-Pesth, Vienna, and
Lubeck, he seems to have striven to give greater
expression to the soldiers, yet even in these the unre-
pentant thief is wanting in character.

In the figure of Herodias' daughter (in the altar-piece
of the Hospital) Memlinc has succeeded in conveying
the idea of a young but not maidenly figure, who,
though pleased by the execution, is evidently sickened
at the sight of the bleeding head. The compassionate
sorrow of the bystanders is also well rendered, and

CHARACTERISTICS 85

many of the accessory figures in his pictures, such as
those in the retinue of the Magi and the Shepherds,
are admirable and true to life, and far better chosen
types than those in the pictures of Hugh van der Goes.
As a portrait painter Memlinc was fairly successful,
but he never gave his sitters the individual naturalism
which we find in John van Eyck's portraits — these are
all quite different from each other ; whereas Memlinc's,
generally speaking, seem to bear in their faces the
impress of his own peaceful cast of mind : the Spinelli
and Strozzi portraits, and that in the Corsini Palace
at Florence, less so than others. Again, while Van
Eyck constantly varied the attitude of his sitters so as to
give more individuality to his pictures, Memlinc almost
invariably represented them as busts, the face seen
in three-quarters, with one hand (rarely with both)
resting on a balcony between two marble columns,
with a landscape background. When his figures are
represented with joined hands, the panel is one leaf
of a diptych or the shutter of a triptych ; it is amongst
these that his best portraits are to be found. They
are so numerous that it is difficult to select typical
examples, but I think those of Sir John Donne, William
Moreel, Martin van Nieuwenhove, and Brothers John
Floreins, Anthony Seghers, and James De Kueninc
are specially noteworthy. The faces of the women
in Memlinc's pictures are generally pleasing and
homely, but if carefully examined will be found to
have individual traits : these are even more marked

86 HANS MEMLINC

in the figures of his boys and girls, whom he seems
to have studied with loving care.

It may be as well to say a word or two here as
to the supposed portraits of Memlinc painted by
himself. In the first half of the seventeenth century
the figure of Saint John Baptist on the shutter of
the triptych painted for brother John Floreins was
supposed to be the likeness of the artist ; an etching
of it by James van Oost the elder bears this inscrip-
tion : Effigies Joannis Hemmelinck qui se depinxit in
hospitali Sancti Joannis Brugis* In 1753 Descamps
described a man with a stubbly beard and an orange
cap looking in at a window, in the central panel of the
same picture, as the painter in the dress of a sick inmate
of the Hospital. This statement has been repro-
duced in the successive editions of the Official Notice
of the Hospital pictures, and in many books, and has
been repeatedly engraved. Next, Passavant, in 1833,
found in the possession of Mr. Aders a portrait which
he says " should be the portrait of Memling himself
as he appeared in the Hospital. Painted quite in the
style of Memling, it is, I doubt not, from his hand."
He further remarks that the wounded arm and the
date, 1462, determine when Memlinc was in the
Hospital. This portrait, now in the National Gallery
(No. 943), is by Dirk Bouts ; the wounded arm is
imaginary, and the picture is fifteen years anterior
to the battle of Nancy, where the older story stated

* Reproduced in Le Bcffroi, iv, 45. Bruges, 1872.

CHARACTERISTICS 87

Memlinc to have been wounded. In 1887, Conway,
speaking of the head etched by Van Oost, says : " The
character of Memlinc is so plainly visible in his work,
and is so totally different from the character of this
meagre, hairy enthusiast, that the attribution cannot
be accepted." But, he says, on the left wing of the
Donne triptych Memlinc "has introduced into the
background what must be a portrait of himself in his
working attire." Must be ! Why ? Because an
anonymous Italian writer of the sixteenth century,
describing a no longer extant picture, supposed to
be a portrait of Memlinc by himself, says that it
depicts a " man rather stout than otherwise, and of a
ruddy complexion." Such, says Conway, " is the build
and appearance of the workman in this wing. He
seems, moreover, to be thirty-two or thirty-three years
of age, which is about what he ought to have been at
the time in question." J. Du Jardin, in his volume on
Memlinc printed in 1897, gives the portrait of a man in
the Staedel Institute at Frankfort as that of Memlinc.
It would be easy to mention other heads quite as likely
to be his portrait. The fact is that, like many of his
contemporaries, he was fond of introducing figures
looking in at windows or from behind a pillar.

I have mentioned Memlinc's fondness for enlivening
his landscapes by the introduction of persons and
animals. In drawing many of these he succeeded
admirably ; his dogs are as true to life as possible —
for instance, the hound in the foreground of the

88 HANS MEMLINC

Tanners' altar-piece, and that looking up at Saint
Ursula in the last scene on her shrine, and the dogs
in the Vienna and Lubeck Passion pictures. His
horses, however, vary considerably ; some few being
well drawn, others, however, are very wooden ; and
yet it is just these that have been picked out by
Van Keverberg as a proof that Memlinc must have
visited Italy and studied the antique horses in Venice,
— an absurd statement adopted by the author of the
Official Notice of the Hospital pictures, and repeated
by Michiels and other popular writers. Memlinc's
lambs, boldly foreshortened, are often out of drawing
and proportion. His camels and monkeys are, on the
other hand, life-like, doubtless careful studies of animals
in the Duke's collection.

The buildings in Memlinc's pictures are, with the
exception of the views of Koln on the shrine,
imaginary, but founded on Rhenish Romanesque and
late fifteenth-century Flemish architecture.

As to technique, Memlinc, influenced doubtless by
his early Rhenish training, seems to have commenced
his works in light tempera, and to have completed them
in oil. He accented the principal lines, and graduated
the remainder with infinite delicacy. His colour, as a
rule, is so thin that the original design may be traced
beneath it — as, for instance, in the portrait of Spinelli,
the Sibyl Sambetha, and some of the panels of the
shrine of Saint Ursula. He made use of a restrained
palette, avoiding multiplicity of colours, but by skilful

CHARACTERISTICS

89

juxtaposition of tints he managed to produce the most
charming and harmonious effects. The Tanners' altar-
piece in the Munich Gallery is a fine example of the
admirable manner in which he contrasted bright, clear
colours, and managed, by untiring labour and mar-
vellous patience, to give roundness of form to his
figures without having recourse to any strong contrasts
of light and shade.

Among his earliest works the Donne triptych may
be cited as an instance of clever treatment of colour ;
on the right the dark figures stand out well on the
sun-lit landscape, while on the left the lighter coloured
figures in the front, and the bright meadow in the half
distance are intensified by the dark trees in the back-
ground. To relieve such backgrounds he frequently
introduced a gaily-dressed cavalier on a white horse
in close proximity. His use of little bits of bright
colour, and especially of white, is very clever ; instances
occur in almost all his pictures.

The triptych painted for Brother John Floreins,
the diptych of Martin van Nieuwenhove, and the
panels on the sides of the shrine of Saint Ursula are
the finest examples of his talent for colour, the diptych
showing also how cleverly he could manage light so
as to impart the appearance of space to an interior ;
whilst his skill in reproducing reflections of objects
may be seen in the convex mirror behind Our Lady,
and in the polished steel armour of the soldiers around
Saint Ursula.

90 HANS MEMLINC

Memlinc was a real artist, with far more sentiment
than John van Eyck. Whilst the works of that great
master of technique excite our wonder and compel
our admiration, the marvellous reproduction of the
minutest details, despite, or rather by reason of
its perfection, ends by wearying, whilst the more
Memlinc's works are studied, the more beauties will
be found in them. Here nothing is obtruded, nothing
introduced to show how well he could paint it, but on
the other hand, nothing scamped, nothing omitted to
give dignity and grace to his principal figures. On
these he bestowed his chief care ; their clothing and
ornaments were in his eyes mere accessories, to be
treated so as to enhance the dignity and appearance
of his figures, and not to draw attention away from
them.

John van Eyck and Memlinc were both colourists,
both bestowing the same care on their work, both
aiming at perfection ; but in reality there was a whole
world between them. Van Eyck, even when painting
religious subjects, only awakes earthly ideas, whilst
Memlinc, even when painting earthly scenes, kindles
in us thoughts of heavenly things. It is easy to see
by his paintings that he was indeed a man humble
and pure of heart, who, when the arts were beginning
to abdicate their position as handmaids of the Church
in order to minister to the pleasures of men, preserved
his love for Christian tradition, and in earnest simplicity
painted what he believed and venerated as he con-

CHARACTERISTICS 91

ceived and saw it in his meditations. There is no
affectation, no seeking after novelties, no mixture of
pagan ideas in his works ; he was entirely unaffected
by the movement which was already making progress
among the Flemings, thanks to the evil influence of the
Burgundian court. One may feel certain that he lived
quietly and happily with his wife and children, ignoring
the brutal scenes that were enacted around, and paying
little attention either to what was said or done in the
world outside. He founded no school, but nevertheless
he exerted a considerable influence, not only on his
contemporaries, but also on the artists who settled in
Bruges during the sixteenth century, and it was no
doubt due to this, that, whilst the old school died out
entirely in other towns, its traditions were still followed
in Bruges until the seventeenth.

CATALOGUE OF THE WORKS OF

HANS MEMLINC

AND OF CERTAIN WORKS ATTRIBUTED TO HIM

ARRANGED ACCORDING TO THE LOCALITIES

WHERE THEY NOW ARE

NOTE

THE measurements of the pictures are given in English feet and
inches. The height always precedes the width. All the pictures
are painted on oak panels.

Where numbers are given thus [No. 6], they are the numbers of
the Catalogue of the Collection. These cannot, however, be guar-
anteed, as alterations are occasionally made in the arrangement of
the pictures.

CATALOGUE OF WORKS

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY

BUDA-PESTH, HUNGARIAN NATIONAL GALLERY.
CALVARY. [No. 124.] i ft. n in. x 2 ft.

Centre of a triptych, the shutters of which are at Vienna.
Formerly in the Esterhazy Collection.
Described, p. 52.

VIENNA, IMPERIAL MUSEUM.
THE BEARING OF THE CROSS. [No. 1009.] i ft. 1 1 in. x 1 1 in.

Dexter shutter of a triptych, the central panel of which is
at Buda-Pesth.

THE RESURRECTION. [No. 1009.] i ft. n in. x n in.

Sinister shutter of a triptych, the central panel of which is
at Buda-Pesth.

In 1770 these two panels were in the Imperial Treasury;
thence they were removed to the Gallery, and in 1883 trans-
ferred to the Museum.

Described, pp. 52, 53.

TRIPTYCH. [Nos. 1 006-8.] Centre, 2 ft. 3 in. x i ft. 7 in. ;
shutters, 2 ft. 3 in. x 8 in.

Our Lady and Child ; an angel and the donor ; Saints
John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, landscape back-
ground ; Adam and Eve.

Noticed, p. 75.

95

96 CATALOGUE OF WORKS

LIECHTENSTEIN GALLERY.

THE BLESSED VIRGIN AND CHILD, SAINT ANTHONY AND
THE DONOR. 3 ft. i in. x i ft. 10 in.

Noticed, p. 71.

BELGIUM

ANTWERP, MUSEUM (VAN ERTBORN COLLEC-
TION).

PORTRAIT. [No. 5.] n in. x 8 in.

Nicolas di Forzore Spinelli of Arezzo, engraver of seals
and medals.

Purchased by M. F. van Ertborn at the sale of Baron
Dominique Vivant Denon's Collection.

Described, p. 13.

CHRIST AND SIXTEEN ANGELS. Centre, 5 ft. 8 in. x 7 ft. ;
wings, 5 ft. 8 in. x 7 ft. 8 in.
Noticed, p. 76.

BRUGES, ACADEMY.

TRIPTYCH. [Nos. 4 to 6.] Centre, 4 ft. x 5 ft. i in.; shutters,
4 ft. x 2 ft. 3 in.

Saints Christopher, Maur, and Giles, with the donors,
W. Moreel and B. van Vlaenderberch, his wife and their
children, protected by Saints William and Barbara. Original
frame, bearing the date of its completion, 1484.

This triptych originally adorned the altar of Saints Maur
and Giles in the chantry chapel founded by Moreel in the
Church of Saint James. The figures on the exterior [Nos.
7 and 8] were added before 1 504, when the endowment of
the foundation was completed, and the altar-piece placed.
Removed thence when the church was occupied by the Cal-
vinists, it was transported to the Hospice of Saint Julian, and,
later on, placed over the altar of its chapel ; when that altar
was reconstructed, the triptych was removed to the warden's

BELGIUM 97

room. The French seized it, 23rd August 1794, and carried
it off to Paris. Recovered in 1815, and deposited in the
Academy.

For a full account of the Moreel family, and of the pictures
executed for them by Memlinc, see Le Beffroi, vol. ii, pp.
179-196. Bruges, 1865. (London, Dulau.)

Described, pp. 42-44.

HOSPITAL OF SAINT JOHN.

TRIPTYCH. Centre, i ft. 4 in. x i ft. 1 1 in. ; shutters, i ft. 4 in.
x 10 in.

The Adoration of the Magi, with the donor, Brother John
Floreins ; the Nativity and Presentation in the Temple ;
Saints John Baptist and Veronica. Original frame bearing
the date of its completion, 1479.

Described, pp. 32-35.

TRIPTYCH. Centre, 5 ft. 8 in. x 5 ft. 8 in. ; shutters, 5 ft. 8 in.
x 2 ft. 7 in.

Our Lady and Child, Saints John the Baptist, John the
Evangelist, Katherine and Barbara, with scenes from the
legends of the two Saints John. On the exterior, kneeling
figures of Brothers Anthony Seghers, James De Kueninc,
and Sisters Agnes Casembrood and Clare van Hulsen, pro-
tected by their patron saints. Original frame, bearing the
date of its completion, 1479.

Described, pp. 36-40.

PORTRAIT, i ft. 2 in. x 1 1 in.

Mary, daughter of William Moreel and Barbara van
Vlaenderberch. Original frame, bearing the date of its
execution, 1480. Generally known as the Persian Sibyl,
Sambetha, and thus named on a cartouche in the upper
dexter corner of the panel, which, as also the scroll at the
foot, appear to be later additions. During two centuries it
adorned the warden's room of the Hospice of Saint Julian.
In 1815 it was transferred to the Hospital.

Described, pp. 41, 42.

G

98 CATALOGUE OF WORKS

DIPTYCH.

Our Lady and Child, with the donor, Martin van Nieuwen-
hove. Original frame, bearing the date of its completion,
1487.

Formerly in the warden's room of the Hospice of Saint
Julian. Carried off to Paris by the French in August 1794 ;
recovered in 1815, and deposited in the Hospital.

Described, pp. 44-46.

SHRINE OF SAINT URSULA. An oblong gabled casket
adorned with fourteen miniatures. The dimensions of the
shrine are : height, 2 ft. 10 in. ; length, 3 ft. ; and breadth,
i ft. i in. ; of the paintings at the ends, i ft. 6 in.
x 7 in.; of those at the sides, i ft. 2 in. x 10 in. Diameter
of the two medallions in the centre of the roof slopes,
7 in. ; of the other four, 4 J in.

At the ends, Our Lady and Child and two of the sisters of
the Hospital ; and Saint Ursula with ten of her companions.
Sides : six scenes from her legend. Roof slopes : the Coro-
nation of Our Lady, Saint Ursula and her companions, and
four musical angels. Completed in 1489.

Described, pp. 46-51.

TRIPTYCH. Centre, i ft. 5 in. x i ft. 2 J in. ; shutters, i ft. 5 in.
xsJin.

The dead Christ mourned by His Mother, Saint John, and
Saint Mary Magdalene ; in the background, the Entomb-
ment. Saint Adrian with the donor, Brother Adrian Reyns ;
Saints Barbara, Wilgefortis, and Mary of Egypt. Original
frame, bearing the date, 1480.

Described, p. 64.

BRUSSELS, ROYAL MUSEUM.

PORTRAIT. [No. 32.] i ft. 3 in. x loin.

William Moreel, merchant grocer, banker, and burgo-
master of Bruges ; c. 1480.

BELGIUM— BRITISH ISLES 99

PORTRAIT. [No. 33.] i ft. 3 in. x roj in.

Barbara van Vlaenderberch, wife of W. Moreel ; c. 1480.
Shutters of a triptych of which the centre is lost. On the
exterior are escucheons charged with their arms.

Purchased in 1861, at Louvain, at the sale of M. D. van
den SchriecKs collection [Nos. 49 and %Q\for the sum ^"4950
francs =,£198.

Described, pp. 40, 41.

PORTRAIT. A Man, said to be Nicolas Strozzi. [No. 34.]
i ft. i in. x 10 in.

Purchased in 1856, at Bruges, at the sale of M. Steyaerfs
Collection, for the sum of 1495 francs =£$9, i6s.
Described, p. 68.

SAINT SEBASTIAN. [No. 3 E.] 2 ft. i J in. x 2 ft. 2-J in.
Noticed, p. 76.

BRITISH ISLES

CHATSWORTH, DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE'S COL-
LECTION.

TRIPTYCH. Centre, 2 ft. 4 in. x 2ft. 3 in.; shutters, 2 ft. 4 in. x i ft.

Our Lady and Child, two angels, Saints Katherine and
Barbara, with the donors, Sir John Donne and Elisabeth
Hastings, his wife, and their daughter ; Saints John the
Baptist, John the Evangelist, Christopher, and Anthony ;
c. 1468.

Described, pp. 13-17.

LONDON, NATIONAL GALLERY.

THE BLESSED VIRGIN AND CHILD, SAINT GEORGE, AND
THE DONOR. [No. 686.] i ft. 9 in. x i ft. 3 in.

Purchased in 1862, at Kbln, at the sale of Mr. J. P.
Weyer's Collection [No. 234] for the sum 0/4600 thalers=
£690. It was formerly in the Gierling Collection, whence it
passed into the hands of the dealer M. Fontaine, who sold it
to Mr. Weyerfor 450 thaler s =££>*], los.
Described, pp. 59, 60.

ioo CATALOGUE OF WORKS

SAINTS JOHN THE BAPTIST AND LAURENCE. [No. 747.]
i ft. 10 in. x 7 in.

Shutters of a triptych, of which the centre is lost.
On the exterior are 'painted some storks or cranes with
bright red crests, and an armorial escucheon.
Purchased in iZ^from M. San of Paris.
Described, p. 63.

MR. G. F. BODLEY, A.R.A.

OUR LADY AND CHILD, TWO ANGELS, SAINTS KATHERINE
AND BARBARA, AND THE DONOR. 2 ft. 3 in. x 2 ft. 5 in.

Purchased on the Continent by Sir Joshua Reynolds, who
gave it to Mrs. Davenport; purchased from a descendant
of that lady by Mr. Bodley*

Described, pp. 60, 61.

DUKE OF WESTMINSTER.
THE BLESSED VIRGIN AND CHILD, AND TWO ANGELS.
Noticed, p. 76.

G. F. SALTING, ESQ.

PORTRAIT. A young man, formerly in the Felix Collection
at Leipzig.

Described, pp. 70, 71.

DENMARK
COPENHAGEN.

THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.
Described, pp. 61, 62.

* This picture has been acquired by Messrs. P. & D. Colnaghi while
these pages were passing through the press.

FRANCE ioi

FRANCE

CHANTILLY, CONDE MUSEUM.

PORTRAIT. Anthony, natural son of Philip, Duke of Bur-
gundy, and Jeanne de Presles.
Described, p. 70.

DIPTYCH, CALVARY, i ft. 2 in. x 9 in.

Joan, Duchess of Bourbon, protected by Saint John
Baptist, adoring the Infant Jesus in His Mother's arms.
Noticed, p. 69.

PARIS, THE LOUVRE.

DIPTYCH. [No. 2027.] 10 in. x 6 in.

The Blessed Virgin and Child, in a landscape, surrounded
by Saints Katherine, Barbara, Agnes, Cecilia, Margaret, and
Lucy. Saint John the Baptist with the donor, John Du
Celier, merchant grocer of Bruges ; in the landscape back-
ground, Saint George overcoming the dragon, and Saint
John gazing on the Apocalyptic vision.

The dexter leaf bequeathed in 1881 by Mr. Gatteauj the
other, formerly in the Collections of Mr. Herz, of Mr. Heath
of Mil land, and of Madame Andre, who presented it in
1895.

Described, pp. 18-20.

THE BLESSED VIRGIN AND CHILD, Saints James the Great
and Dominic with the donors, James Floreins, merchant
grocer of Bruges, his wife and family, in a church; c. 1490.
[No. 2026.] 4 ft. 4 in. x 5 ft. 2 in.

Brought from Spain in 1809 by General d' Armagnac j
subsequently in the Collection of Count Duchdtel. Presented
by his widow in 1878.

Described, pp. 50-52.

102 CATALOGUE OF WORKS

SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST, in a landscape, with scenes from
his legend. [No. 288.] i ft. 7 in. x 5 in.

SAINT MARY MAGDALENE, in a landscape, with scenes from
her legend. [No. 289.] i ft. 7 in. x 5 in.

Two shutters of a triptych.

Formerly in the collection of Prince Lucien Bonaparte^
later in that of William //., King of Holland. Purchased
in 185 1 from the Baron de Fagelfor the sum 0/11,728 francs
=^469, 2s.

Described, pp. 62, 63.

TRIPTYCH. The Resurrection, Ascension, and S. Sebastian.

[No. 699.] Centre, 2 ft. x i ft. 4 in.; shutters, 2 ft. x 8 in.

Bought at the Vallardi sale in 1860 for 13,500 frs. =^"540.

PARIS, M. KANN.

SAINT ANNE AND SAINT WILLIAM, with kneeling figures of
a widow lady and her son in a landscape. 2 ft. 8 in. x i ft.

Shutters of a triptych, the centre of which is lost.
Formerly in the Collection of the poet Samuel Rogers; sold
May 1850 to Mr. Vernon Smith.
Described, pp. 66, 67.

GERMANY

BERLIN, ROYAL MUSEUM.

PORTRAIT. [No. 5290.] i ft. i in. x n in.

An old man ; bust ; landscape background.
Described, p. 67.

OUR LADY AND CHILD. [No. 5286.] i ft. 5 in. x i ft.

Landscape background.
Acquired in 1850.
Described, pp. 65, 66.

GERMANY 103

BERLIN, PRINCE RADZIWILL.

THE ANNUNCIATION.
Noticed, p. 76.

BERLIN, HERR VON KAUFMANN.

TRIPTYCH. The Deposition, Saints James and Christopher.

Formerly in the Collection of the Rev.J. Heath of Milland,
Liphook.

Noticed, p. 75.

DANZIG, CHURCH OF SAINT MARY.

TRIPTYCH. The Last Judgment, the Blessed Virgin and
Child, Saint Michael and the Donors.

Noticed, pp. 71-75.

FRANKFORT, STAEDEL INSTITUTE.

PORTRAIT. [No. 107.] i ft. 4 in. x i ft.

A man ; bust ; landscape background.
Purchased in 1850, at the Hague, at the sale of the Collection
of William //., King of Holland [No. 18].

Described, p. 68.

HERRMANNSTADT, GYMNASIUM.

PORTRAIT OF A MAN AND HIS SON. i ft. 5 in. x i ft. i in.

PORTRAIT OF HIS WIFE, i ft. 5 in. x i ft. i in.

Shutters of a triptych, the centre of which is lost.

io4 CATALOGUE OF WORKS

LUBECK, CATHEDRAL.

POLYPTYCH. Centre, 6 ft. 10 in. x 4 ft. 8 in. • shutters,
6 ft. 10 in. x 2 ft. 6 in.

The Passion of Our Lord ; Saints John the Baptist, Jerome,
Blaise, Giles, and the Annunciation, with the Donor, Henry
Greverade ; 1491.
Described, pp. 54-58.

MUNICH, ROYAL GALLERY.

ALTAR-PIECE OF THE GUILD OF TANNERS OF BRUGES,
1480. 2 ft. 8 in. x 6 ft.

Christ, the Light of the World ; a series of scenes in which
His coming, power, and glory have been revealed.

Sold before 1780 to Mr. Cock, a picture-dealer at Antwerp,
for the sum of £20; from whom it was purchased by Mr. A.
L. van den Bogaerde. At the sale of his Collection in 1799 it
passed into the hands of Mr. Goddyn, who sold it in 1804.
Later on it was in the possession of M. Brion of Brussels,
and in 1813 was sold by him to the brothers Boisserte, whose
Collection was acquired by the Gallery.

Described, pp. 23-32.

SAINT JOHN BAPTIST.

Described, pp. 17, 18.

WOERLITZ.

OUR LADY AND CHILD, WITH TWO ANGELS.
Noticed, p. 76.

ITALY

BERGAMO, CARRARA ACADEMY.

PORTRAIT, i ft. 3 in. x i ft.

A young man ; landscape background.
Not seen.

ITALY 105

FLORENCE, CORSINI PALACE.
PORTRAIT, i ft. i in x 10 in.

A man ; landscape background.
Described, p. 68.

FLORENCE, UFFIZI GALLERY.

SAINT BENEDICT. [No. 778.] i ft. 5 in. x i ft.

Not seen.
PORTRAIT. [No. 769.] i ft. 5 in. x i ft.

A man, half-length ; landscape background. Dated 1487.
Not seen.

OUR LADY AND CHILD, WITH TWO ANGELS; landscape
background. [No. 703.] 3 ft. 2 in. x i ft. 5 in.

Noticed, p. 75.

ROME, DORIA PALACE.

THE DEAD CHRIST mourned by His Mother, Saint John,
Saint Mary Magdalene, and the Donor. 2 ft. 3 in. x i ft. gin.

Described, p. 65.

TURIN, ROYAL MUSEUM.

ALTAR-PIECE of the chapel of Saint John the Evangelist
(Stationers' Guild) in the Church of Saint Bartholomew, at
Bruges. [No. 358.]

The Passion of Christ, with the Donors, William Vrelant
and Mary his wife.

Presented to the Guild in 1478 ; sold by them in 1624.
Later on it was presented to the convent of Preaching Friars
at Bosco, near Alessandria.

Described, pp. 20-23.

106 CATALOGUE OF WORKS

VENICE, ACADEMY.
PORTRAIT, u in. x 10 in.

A man ; landscape background.
Not seen.

NETHERLANDS
THE HAGUE.

PORTRAIT. A young man.
Described, p. 67.

SPAIN

MADRID. PRADO GALLERY.

TRIPTYCH. The Adoration of the Magi. [No. 1424.]
Height, 3 ft. 2 in.
Noticed, p. 77.

INDEX

Adoration of the Magi, The
(Bruges triptych, 1479), 33, 97,
ill. 32 ; (Munich) 24, ill. 26 ;
(Madrid), 77, 106

Adoration of the Magi, The, by
Roger de la Pasture, 35

Adoration of the Lamb, The, by
Hubert Van Eyck, 73, 79

Annunciation, The (Prince Radzi-
will, Berlin), 76, 103

Antwerp, Pictures at, 13, 76, 96

Bearing of the Cross, The (Vienna),
52, 95, ill. 52

Berlin, Pictures at, 65, 66, 67, 75,
76, 102, 103

Beringhen, William van, 5

Bodley, Mr. G. F., Altar-piece in
the possession of, 60, 61, 100, ill.
60

Boels, Louis, 12

Bonaparte, Prince Lucien, Collec-
tion of, 62

Bouts, Dirk, 81 ; portrait by, in
the National Gallery, 86

Boxall, SirW., 69

Bruges, early greatness of, I ; four-
teenth-century paintings at, 3 ;
triptych in the Academy, 42-44,

96, 97 ; pictures .in St. John's
Hospital (triptych, 1479), 10, 32-
3S» 77> 82, 97, ill. 32, 34 ; (altar-
piece, 1479), 10, 36-40, 82, 84,

97, HI- 36, 38; (diptych, 1487),
44-46, 98, ill. Front., 44; (trip-
tych, 1480), 64, 98; (Portrait of
Mary Moreel), II, 41, ill. 42;
(Shrine of St Ursula), u, 46-50,
82, 88, ill. 46, 48

Brussels, Pictures in the Museum at,

40, 41, 68, 76, 98, 99, ill. 40, 42

Bultinc, Peter, Altar-piece painted

107

for, with portrait, 10, 23-31, 104,
ill. 24, 26, 30

Burgundy, Philip, Duke of, Portrait
of his son Anthony, 70, 101

Calvary (Buda- Pesth), 52, 95;

(Chantilly), 69, 101 ; (Lubeck),

54-58, 104, *7/. 54
Casembrood, Agnes, Portrait of, 39,

40, 97
Chantilly, Pictures in the Conde

Museum at, 69, 70, 101
Charles the Bold, 9, 13, 17
Chatsworth, Triptych at, 14-17, 99,

ill. 14, 1 6, 1 8
Christ and Angels (Antwerp), 76,

96
Christ, Passion of (Turin), 20-23,

ill. 20, 22 ; early copy, 23 n. ;

(Lubeck), u, 54-58, 104; ill.

54
Christ, The Dead (Bruges Hospital),

64, 98; (Rome, Dona Palace),

65, 105

Christ the Light of the World
(Munich), 23-31, 104, ill. 24, 26,
30

Coene, John, 4

Copenhagen, Epiphany picture at,
61, 100, ill. 62

Cristus, Pete; 5

Danzig, The Last Judgment picture

at, 71, 103 ; various attributions

of, 72-75
Daret, James, 17
David, Gerard, 81
Deckere, Peter de, 4
Diic, Arnold upten, 4
Donne, Sir John, Triptych painted

for, 9, 14-17, 82, 85, 89, 99, ill.

14, 16, 18

io8

INDEX

Doppere, Rumbold de, Diary of, 8
Driessche, John van den, 5
Du Celier, John, Diptych painted
for, with portrait, 19, 20, 50, 82,

Eichen, John and George van, 72
Epiphany picture (Copenhagen), 61,

1 08, ///. 62

Eyck, Hubert and John van, 5, 22 ;
the Danzig picture formerly attri-
buted to, 72, 73, 74, 75 ; The
Adoration of the Lamb, 73,
79 ; comparison of with Memlinc,
79, 90

Floreins, Brother John, Triptych
painted for, with portrait, 10, 32-
35, 77, 82, 85, 97, 101, ill. 32, 34

Floreins, Adrian, 50

Floreins, James, 50 ; picture painted
for, 50-52, 82, 101, ill. 50

Florence, Pictures at, 68, 75, 105

Frankfort, Portrait at, 68, 103

Gheere, Dirk van den, 7

Goes, Hugh van der, 17, 72, 73, 85

Greverade, Henry, Picture painted

for, with portrait, 54-57, 104
Greverade, Canon Adolphus, 57, 58

Hague, The, Portrait at, 67, 106

Hastings, Sir Leonard, 16

Herodia? Daughter (Bruges Altar-
piece), 37, 84 ; (Louvre), 63

Hulsen, Clare van, Portrait of, 39,
40, 97

Kann, M., Picture in the possession

of, 66, 67, 102
Kaufmatm, Herr von, Triptych in

the possession of, 75, 103
Kueninc, James de, Portrait of, 39,

40, 85, 97

Last Judgment, The (Danzig), 71-

75, 103 .

Lathem, Livin van, 17

Lubeck, Alter-piece in the Cathe-
dral at, 11, 54-58, 104, ill. 54

Madrid, Triptych at, 77, 106

Margaret of York, Marriage with
Charles the Bold, 17

Mary, The Seven Joys of, 22

Meersch, Passchier van der, pupil
of Memlinc, 1 1

Memlinc, Hans, legend concerning,
5-6 ; the spelling of his name, 6 ;
origin of his family, 7-8 ; birth,
8 ; pupil of Roger de la Pasture,
9 ; comes to Bruges, 9 ; marriage,
10 ; death of his wife, II ; death,
11; his sons, 12; portrait of
Spinelli, 13 ; the Donne triptych,
14 ; picture painted for John du
Celier, 18; the Vrelant altar-
piece, 20 ; altar - piece of the
Tanners' Guild, 23 ; two trip-
tychs in the Hospital of St. John,
32 ; portraits of the Moreel
family, 41 ; altar-piece painted
for the Moreel chantry, 42 ;
diptych for Martin van Nieuwen-
hove, 44 ; the shrine of St. Ursula,
46 ; picture painted for James
Floreins, 50 ; Passion pictures at
Pesth, 52, and at Lubeck, 53 ;
unauthenticated works, 59 ; other
attributed works, 69 ; the Danzig
picture, 71 ; comparison with the
van Eycks, 79, 80, 90 ; his
Madonnas, 80, 81 ; his grouping,
82 ; his landscapes, 83 ; unsuc-
cessful in representing evil pas-
sions, 84 ; his portraits, 85 ; sup-
posed portraits of himself, 86;
his drawing of animals, 87 ; his
technique, 88 ; his treatment of
colour, 89-90 ; his religious feel-
ing, 90, 91

Moreel, Mary, Portrait of, II, 41,
97, ill. 42

Moreel, William, 40, 50; portrait of,
and his wife (Brussels), II, 41,
85, 98, ill. 40; triptych painted
for, n, 42, 82

Munich, Picturesat, 17-18, 23-32, 104

Nativity, The (Bruges triptych),
34, 97

INDEX

109

Nieuwenhove, Martin van, Diptych
painted for, n, 44-46, 98, ill.
44 ; portrait of, 44, 85, ill.
Front.

Oost, James van, Etching by, 86, 87
Ouwater, Albert van, 72, 73

Pasture, Roger de la, 9 ; influence
of in Memlinc's works, 16, 74 ;
his Adoration of the Magi,
35 ; his Madonnas contrasted
with Memlinc's, 81

Paris, Pictures in (Louvre), 18-20,
5052, 62, 63, 101, 102; (Kann
Collection), 66, 67, 102

Portrait of a Young Man (The
Hague), 66, 67, 106 ; (Mr. Salt-
ing), 76, 100

Portrait of an Old Man (Berlin),

67, 102

Portrait of a Man (Florence, Uffizi),
n, ill. 68; (Florence, Corsini
Palace), 67, 85, 105 ; (Frankfort),

68, 103

Presentation in the Temple, The
(Bruges triptych), 34, 97

Resurrection, The (Vienna), 53, 95
Reyns, Adrian, Triptych painted

for, 64, 98

Riebeke, Katherine van, 31
Rycke, Daniel De, 17

Sambetha, The Sybil, II, 42, 88,
97, ///. 42

St. Anne and St. William (Paris,
M. Kann), 66, 102

St. Anthony (Chatsworth), 15, 99,
*//. 1 8

St. Christopher (Chatsworth), 15,
99, ill. 1 8 ; (Bruges Academy),
42, 96

St. John the Baptist (Chatsworth
triptych), 15, 99, ill. 16 ; (Mun-
ich), 17, 18, 104; (Bruges,
Floreins triptych), 34, 97 ; sup-
posed t© be a portrait of the
artist, 86 ; (Bruges altar-piece),
37, 87 ; (Louvre), 62, 102 ;

(National Gallery), 63, 100 ;

(Vienna triptych), 75, 95
St. John the Evangelist (Chatsworth

triptych), 15, 99, ill. 16 (Bruges

altar - piece), 38, 97 ; (Vienna

triptych), 75, 95
St. Laurence (National Gallery),

63, 100
St. Mary Magdalene (Louvre), 63,

102

St. Sebastian (Brussels), 76, 99 ;

(Louvre triptych), 76, 102
St. Ursula, The Shrine of, II, 46-

50, 82, 88, 98, ill. 46, 48
St. Veronica (Bruges triptych), 34,

97

Salting, Mr. G. F., Portrait in the
possession of, 76, 100

Seghers, Anthony, portrait of, 39,
40, 85, 97

Stationers' Guild, Altar-piece of the,
21-23, 53, 105

Spinelli, Nicolas di Forzore, por-
trait of, 9, 13, 84, 85, 88,
96

Strozzi, Nicolas, Portrait of (Brus-
sels), 68, 85, 99

Tanners' Guild, Altar-piece of the,

24-31, 53, 88, 89, 104
Tempera, method of painting in, 3
Tongeren, William van, 5
Truffin, Philip, 17
Turin, Passion picture at, 20-23,

53, 105, ill. 20, 22

Valkenaere, Louis de, 10
Verhanneman, John, apprentice of

Memlinc, 10
Vienna, Pictures at, 52, 53, 71, 75 >

95, 96

Virgin and Child (Chatsworth), 14-

17, 99, ill. 14; (Louvre diptych),

18, 101 ; (Bruges altar - piece,
1479), 36> 97, HI- 36; (Bruges
diptych, 1487), 44, 45, 98, #/.
44 ; (Shrine of St. Ursula), 47,
98, ill. 46; (Louvre), 50, 101,
ill. 50; (Mr. Bodley), 60, 61,
100, ill. 60; (National Gallery),

no INDEX

59, 99, ill 59 ; (Berlin), 65, 102 ; painted for, with portrait, 10, 20-

(Vienna, Liechtenstein Gallery), 23, 53, 105, ill. 20, 22
71, 96 ; (Vienna), 75, 95 ; (Flor-
ence, Uffizi), 75, 105, ill 76;

(Woerlitz), 76, 104 ; (Duke of Westminster, Duke of, picture in

Westminster), 76, 100 the possession of, 76, 100

Vlaenderberch, Barbara van, por- Weyden, Roger van der. See

trait of (Brussels), 41, 99 Pasture

Vrelant, William, 7 ; altar - piece Willems, Jodoc, portrait of, 37

LIBRARY

PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY

ND

673

Weale, William Henry James
Hans Memlinc

-r V

/> >~--V-,j?€

/ ;